Provenance Information

(sale) Sotheby's, New York, New York, "Pre-Columbian Art," sale 6562, lot 41, May 17, 1994; David Bernstein Fine Art, New York, New York, ca. Nov., 1994

Exhibition Information

no known prior exhibitions

Publication Information

no known prior publications

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Gift or bequest expected or on loan prior to 2008

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

This work has provenance confirmed to 1994, when it was sold at Sotheby’s, New York. (Sotheby’s was unable to provide any further information regarding earlier provenance.) Since that time it has been loaned repeatedly to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. At the museum it has been on nearly constant view as part of the Brooks’ installation of Meso- and South American art. The tabard is the only piece of Inca featherwork in the museum’s collection, and thus fills an important gap in the museum’s holdings.

Provenance Information

Before 1978, father of Joseph Espinoza, Brazil; 1978, by descent to his son, Joseph Espinoza, Toronto, Canada; between 2004 and 2007, sold by Espinoza to Arte Xibalba, Osprey, Florida; 2007, sold by Arte Xibalba to Douglas Deihl, Northampton, Massachusetts; 2010, gift of Deihl to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 22, 2010)

Exhibition Information

None known.

Publication Information

None known.

Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970

Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

It is likely, but not documented, that Espinoza's father acquired this in Brazil around the 1950s or 1960s, when he built up his collection.