Provenance Information

[André Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1960’s]; Guido and Nelly di Tella, Buenos Aires, 1960’s-2013; Claudia Quentin, New York, 2013-2021

Exhibition Information

On view in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 22, 2015-April 26, 2016 (TR.561.2014; L.2015.14)

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

The work has a reported provenance from 1960’s, when it was acquired by Guido and Nelly di Tella, Buenos Aires, from dealer André Emmerich, New York. The di Tellas sold the Wari tunic to Claudia Quentin, Buenos Aires, in 2013 at which time Mrs. di Tella informed Mrs. Quentin that the tunic came from Andre Emmerich. The di Tella children have confirmed that their parents bought from Mr. Emmerich in the 1960’s and remember Precolumbian textiles in a protected niche in their home since that time. In addition, the conservation technique applied to the Tunic is of a type known from the 1950’s and 1960’s and not used in recent decades.

Provenance Information

By 1965, Alan C. Lapiner, New York; 1965-2018, private New York collection (object #5)

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

Based on the results of provenance research, the Princeton University Art Museum can make an informed judgment that the object was outside its probable country of modern discovery before 14 November 1970. The collector maintained a sequential inventory of their collection with the year of each acquisition specified. The accuracy of the list is demonstrated by a number of works in the inventory that were either published in other collections prior to the collector’s acquisition date or published or exhibited shortly after the acquisition, in each instance with the appropriate ownership history documented. According to the inventory, the collector acquired this work in 1965 from Alan C. Lapiner, a New York art dealer.

Provenance Information

probably Alan Lapiner, New York City, before 1970; Justin Kerr, New York City, probably before 1970

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

Justin Kerr, a professional photographer and the immediate past owner, has confirmed the tunic was in his collection by at least 1975, when he and his late wife moved from one home to another, but he does not recall when or from whom he acquired it. He further confirms that Brigga (Brigitte) Lapiner, deceased, mounted the tunic; that in the 1960s he occasionally worked with Mrs. Lapiner’s husband, Alan Lapiner, a well-known Pre-Columbian dealer who died on February 3, 1975; and that during this period he acquired several objects from Mr. Lapiner. According to Mr. Kerr, there are only two people still alive who might recall having seen the tunic at his home in the early days. Both state that the tunic was displayed at the Kerr residence for many years but they do not remember the dates on which they first saw it. One adds that, according to his memory, he saw the tunic in Mr. Lapiner’s gallery in the late 1960s and that Mrs. Lapiner had stopped treating textiles in about 1970 in order to care for the Lapiners’ children. Taken together, these statements suggest that Mr. Kerr obtained the tunic before 1970 from Mr. Lapiner.

Ancient Andean weavers created one of the world’s most distinguished textile traditions, and the Chancay corpus forms an important chapter in that history. The museum’s exhibition-worthy Chancay holdings comprise only one other garment—a tie-dyed head cloth made of plain weave. This fine tunic, woven in the tapestry technique, will allow the museum to present to the public a more complete picture of Chancay garment types, weaving structures, and imagery. It also instantiates a major event in ancient Andean history since it represents a recently defined subtype that probably post-dates the Inca conquest of Chancay territory.