Reputedly in the collection of the family of Elisabeth Maria Coebergh, the Netherlands, since 1980; thence consigned to Moonsail Ltd.; thence in 2009 to John Eskenazi, Ltd., London; thence acquired by Dallas Museum of Art (accession date: August 23, 2010).
REASON FOR ACQUISITION AS AN EXCEPTION TO THE 1970 RULE:
Provenance is reputedly clear to the 1980s. This piece has been exhibited at the DMA since October 2010. This is a superb, and rare, example of later Gandharan art from the Hadda region, a center of a distinctly beautiful school of Gandharan sculpture from the 4th to 6th centuries AD. The intense vitality of the bodhisattva’s pose is unusual among the more severe, upright, treatment of the figure common in Gandharan art, which is exemplified in other sculptures on display in the DMA's galleries. Gandharan pieces significantly illustrate the links between the arts of cultures represented in the Museum’s galleries of ancient Mediterranean and south Asian art.
EXHIBITION HISTORY: DMA, October 2010 through the present.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: As of February 23 2010, not listed with Art Loss Register.