Purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Christie’s, New York, on March 19, 2008, lot 481. Payment for this work was made after The Metropolitan Museum of Art adopted the Report of the AAMD Task Force on the Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art (2008). The Christie’s sales catalogue stated that the consignors, the McPhersons, acquired the work in the 1980s. The work was offered for sale at Sotheby’s, New York, on June 12, 1984, as lot 34, but did not sell. The McPhersons may have acquired it from Sotheby’s after that sale.

REASON FOR ACQUISITION AS AN EXCEPTION TO THE 1970 RULE: This work has provenance established to at least 1984 when the work was published and offered for sale at public auction. This work fills a major gap in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s comprehensive collection of Asian art because the Museum has no other bi of this type from the 3rd century B.C. in its collection and because of the work’s excellent quality and condition.