Provenance Information

John and Kathi Oppenheimer, San Antonio, Texas, by 1998; On loan from John and Kathi Oppenheimer to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1998-2013; by gift of John and Kathi Oppenheimer to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2023.

Exhibition Information

On loan by John and Kathi Oppenheimer to San Antonio Museum of Art; 1998-2013.

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

This work was exhibited as a loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art prior to its donation to the permanent collection. SAMA staff first began working with and exhibiting objects from the Oppenheimer collection 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.

Provenance Information

Oppenheimer Family, San Antonio, Texas, before November 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

Collection of Anton Possenbacker, Munich, Germany, by early 1970s; purportedly purchased by Private Collector, Switzerland. (Constance Kamens Fine Art), New York; purchased by Brian and Florence Mahony, Redding, CT, 1986; Gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2012.

Exhibition Information

On display in the Museum Arts of the Ancient Americas (formerly Pre-Columbian) Galleries, 2012-2017

Publication Information

Ferdinand Anton. Alt-Indianische Kunst in Mexiko. 28. VEB E.A. Seeman Verlag, Leipzig. 1986.

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 work has been in the United State since the early 1970s, and was purchased by donors in 1986. Acquisition adds to the Museum's collection of Tlatilco works and allows opportunity to put object into public domain and facilitate further research.