Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before 1980 (Note 1); John and Kathi Oppenheimer by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.
Note 1: This object appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection printed in November 1980 (date appears on the reverse of the photograph).

Exhibition Information

N/A

Publication Information

N/A

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

San Antonio Museum of Art staff began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection on loan by 1998, a relationship that culminated in the donation of the collection to the museum in 2023. Documents presented to the museum prior to the donation indicate that Herbert Oppenheimer (1911-1989) was active in Mesoamerican art collecting by 1960; documentation also shows that his son, John Oppenheimer, was actively collecting by 1968. This artwork appears in a photograph of the Oppenheimer collection dated to 1980, the earliest photographs of the collection in the museum’s possession.

Provenance Information

With Joel Malter (1931-2006) [Joel L. Malter & Co., Inc.], Los Angeles, California, 2004. With Sue McGovern-Huffman [Sands of Time Ancient Art], Washington, DC.

Exhibition Information

Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York, 2011.

Publication Information

To our knowledge, this object has never been published.

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

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The Carlos continues to conduct provenance research on this and all objects in our collection.

Provenance Information

Ex private collection, France. Purchased by MCCM from Pierre Berge & Associes, Paris, October 15, 2005, lot 387, through Jerome Eisenberg (1930-2022) [Royal-Athena Galleries], New York, New York.

Exhibition Information

MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, 2006 - Present

Publication Information

Pierre Berge & Associes, Paris, Archeologie, miniatures orientales, art de la Chine (October 15-16, 2005), 99, lot 387.

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

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

The Carlos is committed to conducting provenance research on this object and our entire collection.

Provenance Information

Ex coll. Mark Hampton, United States. Ex coll. Nicholas Pisaris, United States, bequest from Hampton.

Exhibition Information

To our knowledge, this object has never been exhibited.

Publication Information

To our knowledge, this object has never been published.

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

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

Donor was living and working in Venezuela in the 1960s and 1970s. We have receipts and documentation that support he was collecting in good faith, but we are unable to match the documents to specific objects.

Provenance Information

About 1973, sold by Edward S. Merrin Gallery, New York, to Sherman Sackheim (b. 1921 – d. 2001) and Paula S. Sackheim (b. 1930 – d. 1982), Larchmont, NY [see note 1]; passed to their estate [see note 2]; by 2015, sold by the family of Sherman and Paula Sackheim to Anthropos Gallery, Los Angeles; 2015, sold by Anthropos Gallery to Timothy Phillips, Boston; 2019, gift of Timothy Phillips to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 2019)

NOTES:
[1] Undated shorthand notes on Merrin Gallery letterhead, provided by the Sackheims, describe the flute and give a sale price. A teller’s check shows that payment was made for this object, at least in part, in 1973. [2] The estate of Paula S. Sackheim first lent the flute to EPCOT Center in 1984; it remained on loan there until about 2008.

Exhibition Information

EPCOT Center, Florida, beginning in 1984 and continuing until around 2008.

Publication Information

None known.

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

Cumulative facts and circumstances

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

It is reasonable to infer that this flute was on the market by 1972, since at least partial payment was made for it in the following year, and that it was therefore outside of Mexico by the date of that country’s 1972 Federal Act on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historic Zones.

The gift was initially accepted with the belief that it was sold to the Sackheims around 1969 – 1971, and only later was the 1973 sale date discovered.

The flute has been exhibited publicly for years.

Provenance Information

Susan M. Yecies, New York, before 2010. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

Exhibition Information

Sights and Sounds of Ancient Ritual, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 11/09/2018–03/03/2019

Publication Information

Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer and Marijke J. Klokke, Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian Bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600 (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1988), no. 72, 73.

J. E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, Indo-Javanese Metalwork (Stuttgart, Germany: Linden-Museum Stuttgart, 1984), no. 50, 51.

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

N/D

Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above

N/A

Provenance Information

Reportedly collection of Dr. Franz Ebstein until 1968 ; Ernst Barash (New York, 1968-2017) ; [ David Bernstein Pre-Columbian Art by 2017]

Exhibition Information

None

Publication Information

None

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

This work was reportedly in the collections of Dr. Franz Ebstein and Ernst Barash before 1970, but the Metropolitan Museum has not been able to independently verify this information. Dr. Ebstein was a collector of pre-Columbian art in the 1960s. Although this work was not included he is among the lenders to is a 1969 exhibition Selections from Private Collections at the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. Before Dr. Ebstein’s death in 1977, Mr. Barash acquired much of his collection, including this work. A photographic slide of the work that is automatically time stamped 1968 with a Kodak logo of that era also suggests that the work was in an American collection by that date.