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Showing posts with label Nepal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nepal. Show all posts

September 3, 2022

Restitution: A timeline of one black stone stela of Durga


The Supreme shakti, Maa Durga, an incarnation of Goddess Parvati, the daughter of Himavan, the lord of the mountains. She is the mother-goddess -- Shakti -- the power that runs the universe and is worshiped with utmost devotion in Hindu religion.  According to legend, Durga was created for the slaying of the demon Mahisasura by Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the lesser gods, who were otherwise powerless to overcome him. Embodying their collective energy (shakti), she is both derivative from the male divinities and the manifested representation of their power and fought Mahishasura over a period of fifteen days during which he kept changing his shape to become different animals and misled her.


She is perhaps the most important goddess of the Hindus, often depicted triumphantly as the destroyer of evil – with her ten mighty arms carrying lethal weapons. Through all her forms, she encompasses the essence of salvation and sacrifice so it is fitting to try and outline here the passage of one venerated sculpture that has recently gone home thanks to the work of the New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan and their Antiquities trafficking unit. 


On/around 1960s
A 14th century black stone stela of Durga, an object of reverence and worship, venerated in a shrine in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal is stolen.


The stolen stela features the story of the Goddess Durga's battle with the asura Mahishasura who roamed the universe destroying everything that blocked his way framed within an aureole with beaded rim and flaming border. At the center Durga stands with one leg resting on the tigerish Dawon, offered by gods to serve as a her mount. She is sculpted with her many arms radiating around her holding a conch, a discus, a lotus, a sword, a flame, and her trishula, a trident used to strike down Mahishasura as he transforms into a buffalo. 

Here is a simplified overview of her journey following her plunder in Nepal, through the hands of corrupt dealers and a very wealthy collector in the United States.   The hard and attentive work of law enforcement agents, public prosecutors, trafficking analysts and anti-trafficking advocates combined successfully brought this endangered cultural and religious sculpture back home to the people of Nepal. 

Established Chronology

After its theft in the 1960s and by 1969
The 14th century black stone stele of Durga from Nepal surfaces in New York with numerous Nepali statues handled by "dealer and trafficker Doris Wiener during the 1960s" before being sold to Asian art collector and longtime partner at Wall Street investment house of Lehman Brothers, Paul E. Manheim, who in turn donates and loans many artworks to the Hofstra University Museum of Art in Hempstead, New York in Long Island.  

For two decades Manheim was a fundamental contributors and advisors of loans and donations to various other museums including the Brooklyn Museum, the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, the Hood Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Smithsonian, and the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame.  He also advised Robert Lehman on his own multi-million dollar collection which is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

20-21 September 1985
Sotheby's hosts its "Indian, Tibetan, Nepalese, Thai, Khmer and Javanese Art, Including Indian Miniatures"sale in New York. 

A rather hefty with 710 lots, the property included pieces with Paul Manheim, Robert Ellsworth, George Bickford, the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, and the late Mr. Robert Payne.  50 sculptures were consigned by Paul E. Manheim. 

16 September 2009
Christie's New York offers over 200 selected works in the sale of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, including exceptional bronzes, stone sculptures and Indian miniatures. This auction too includes a selection from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Manheim, as well as various other private collections.

13 September 2011

The listing states that the artefact was on loan to the Hofstra University Museum of Art, New York since 1969 and lists its provenance as: 

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Manheim, New York, on loan to Hofstra University Museum of Art, New York, since 1969

The artwork sells for USD 6,250.

12 September 2012

The listing states that the artefact was once on loan to the Hofstra University Museum of Art, New York from 1969-2010.

Its provenance, like with the September 2011sale, is listed as: 

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Manheim, before 1969.

The artwork sells for USD 16,250.

23 March 2022
The 14th century black stone stele of Durga from Nepal is scheduled for auction at Christie's for a third time, listed as coming from a distinguished Chicago collection and estimated to sell for 12,000 - 18,000 USD.   The stela is withdrawn in advance of the sale.

6 June 2022
Based on an investigation conducted by Assistant District Attorney Bradley Barbour, Investigative Analyst Daniel Healey, Hilary Chassé, and Apsara Iyer; and Special Agent Igor Gamza of Homeland Security Investigations, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Senior Trial Counsel, with investigative support by Dr. Erin Thompson, the black stone stele of Durga from Nepal is formally seized. Its seizure was made possible by the evidence from the Manhattan Office’s investigation into Nancy Weiner, the daughter of Doris Weiner, who was convicted in September 2021 for her role in trafficking and selling millions of dollars’ worth of stolen antiquities in New York County.

24 August 2022
The New York District Attorney's Office in Manhattan returns of the 14th century black stone stele of Durga to the people of Nepal.  In a formal handover ceremony held at the Manhattan District Attorney's office, acting Consul General Vishnu Gautam received the black stone stele of Durga from Nepal from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.


In closing, and as ARCA has said (repeatedly) in the past, buying and selling ancient art requires a prudent purchaser, one willing to research the provenience (country of origin) and provenance (history of ownership) of an object they intend to own, and to evaluate the available information in the context of the current legal framework.  

When details of an object's past are omitted, by the seller, by an antiquities dealer or by an auction house, either intentionally or accidentally, and/or when a buyer knowingly turns a blind eye, each are complicit in facilitating the illicit market and the destruction of cultural heritage.  In the 21st century churning trafficked antiquities through the legitimate marketplaces, buying, selling, and donating,  intentionally mislabeled pretty things while still conveniently clinging to the negligent “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach is inexcusable. 

April 21, 2021

Restitution announcements sometimes don't (or can't) tell the whole story

Yesterday ARTnews broke a restitution story that a looted sculpture was in the process of being sent back home to Nepal, thanks to the help of the Art Institute of Chicago. The artefact, en route to Kathmandu, was referred to as a caturmukha linga, also sometimes called a Shivalinga or a Mukhalingam.  Yet despite its differing names, these votary linga represent the Hindu god Shiva.  In this instance, the object in question has four faces, each pointing toward a cardinal direction, evoking different aspects of the sacred deity.

According to the article's author, Alex Greenberger, Senior Editor at ARTnews, the museum declined to name the collector identified as the holder of the artwork. One of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States, the Art Institute of Chicago said only that the antiquity in question "had never been accessioned" into their collection.

The Illinois museum also did not provide clarification on the artefact's collection history or elaborate further on how they knew the idol was stolen, or when, or from where, the Shivalinga had been removed.  All this empty space surrounding a restitution is indicative of formal or informal confidentiality agreements and sometimes these are the only means of ensuring a collector, or his or her heir(s), agree to relinquish an artefact voluntarily.

Underscoring this, an email, from the embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal had only limited details and cited that an “agreement” had been reached between the object's holder and the embassy for the caturmukha linga's voluntarily surrender.

But to answer the question on every provenance researcher's mind, I've outlined what we have been able to determine, prefacing it that all this information is available in open-source records available to the public if you are willing to dig a bit deeper.

Last December Nepal's news service Kantipur Daily issued an article discussing an artefact from Nepal in the custody of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. That artefact was described as a four-faced Shivalinga of the Lichchhavi era (approximately 400 to 750 CE).  The sculpture was said to have previously been in the Christie's Collection in London until 1997 when it was purchased at some point by a private individual and ultimately taken to the United States.   Sometime after that, the Shivalinga was presented to the Art Institute of Chicago, apparently as part of the Alsdorf Collection.

Image Credit: POLYMath Design
Businessman and investor James W. Alsdorf, who died in 1990 at 76 years of age, was one of Chicago's top art collectors, as well as chairman of the board of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975 to 1978. His wife, Marilynn Bruder Alsdorf, an art collector in her own right, died in 2019. The couple is survived by a daughter and two sons as well as numerous grandchildren.  

Over the years the Alsdorf donations significantly enriched the collections of North American Museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago.  Their collection, before it was broken up, donated, or sold, was an example of cross-category collecting and encompassed antiquities, works on paper, European and Latin American art, and Indian and Southeast Asian and Asian art as well as paintings by Frida Kahlo, René Magritte, Joan Miró among others.  Yet some of the objects the ancient art they collected have raised some questions as to whether or not the Alsdorfs conducted sufficient due diligence before purchasing pieces for their collection.

As a testament to their relationship with The Art Institute of Chicago, the Alsdorf's generosity made possible a Renzo Piano-designed renovation to the institution's Alsdorf Galleries for Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art.  It is here where a considerable portion (approximately 400 objects) of the Alsdorf Collection is now viewable.

Outside Illinois,  the couple's sway in the art and political world was no less influential.  Mr. Aldsorf was appointed to the U.S. Information Agency's Cultural Affairs Committee, first by President Ronald Reagan and later by President George H. W. Bush.  But back to our stolen artefact.


In July 1984, the mūrti in question disappeared from the southeast corner outside the Panch Deval, part of the sacred Hindu Pashupatinath Temple Complex on the western bank of Bagmati River which runs through the Kathmandu Valley.  A photograph of the caturmukha linga, noting the period of its theft, is depicted intact on page 117 of Lain Singh Bangdel's book, Stolen Images of Nepal, published in 1989.   The previous height of the four-faced artefact was 28 inches, unfortunately, those who stole it saw fit to hacked it in two, leaving only the upper 16 inches preserved. 

The Pashupatinath Temple Complex

How this sacred mūrti was smuggled out of the country and into London remains an unanswered (or unpublicised) question. As does what import documentation accompanied the mūrti after its purchase in the United Kingdom and upon entering the United States. 

What is clear, is that Nepal's gods, often leave the country by brutal means, ripped away or sawed into transportable sized hunks, only to be orinamentalised in the homes of private collectors.  This time it took almost 27 years to right a past wrong.  But at least this one 1271+-year-old beloved object is, at last, going home. 

If you would like to follow the identifications of Nepal sacred objects in circulation, please follow the Nepal Pride Project on Twitter or Lost Arts of Nepal on Facebook


April 20, 2021

Restitution: Manhattan and US authorities hand over three 13 - 16th century CE artefacts stolen from the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

One week after its last restitution, on the first of April, the Consulate General of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in New York received three more Kapoor-handled artefacts at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Those artefacts were: 

  • a 13th century CE wooden beam depicting a colored Apsara
  • a 14th-15th century CE gold seated Buddha in Bhumisparsa Mudra, 
  • a 15th-16th century CE seated Ganesha 
All three of these ancient objects were seized pursuant to the Manhattan DA's investigation of antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor.  In furtherance of the occasion, Consulate General Mr. Bishnu Prasad Gautam, and District Attorney of New York County Mr. Cyrus Vance Jr. signed an agreement establishing the recovery, hand over, and repatriation of the antiquities to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.  


Mr. Gautam expressed his thanks to the United States Department of Homeland Security and Acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Eric Silverman, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., and Assistant D.A. Matthew Bogdanos, Senior Trial Counsel and Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, who handled the recovery of the Nepali artefacts along with Special Agents Brenton Easter and John Paul Labbat and Investigative Analyst Apsara Iyer of the Manhattan DA's office. 


The Nepal officials honoured those responsible for the artefacts' restitution,  bestowing them with a traditional Tibetan Khata, a scarf offered as a symbol of respect and gratitude.  

To date, several investigations have tracked many false provenances provided by Subhash Kapoor. This methodology of back-tracking an artefact to its theft site and searching out the smuggling methods from the source country to Kapoor's U.S. gallery and the collectors who purchased from him has led to several recoveries.  One of those, a 10th- or 11th-century mūrti of Lakshmi-Narayana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी-नारायण, IAST: Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa), a manifestation of Vishnu in the Hindu religion disappeared from the Narayan Temple in the Patko Tol neighbourhood in Patan, in 1984.  That sacred object was eventually purchased six years later in March 1990 by David T. Owsley, (a client of Kapoor's) who in turn lent the object to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA).  On 2 March 2021 officials from the Dallas FBI Field Office and the Dallas Museum of Art announced the voluntary restitution and formal transfer of that mūrti back to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.


March 7, 2021

The chronology of a beloved mūrti...now on its way home to Nepal

Image Credit: Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

1956
Nepal's Ancient Monuments Preservation Act goes into effect. Article 12 of the Act criminalises theft from ancient monuments and Article 13 restricts the export of cultural objects without prior Government approval, meaning an official permit issued by the Department of Archaeology.

1 January 1984
A 15th-century, 34” tall, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी-नारायण, IAST: Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa), a manifestation of Vishnu in the Hindu religion is published in Krishna Deva’s Images of Nepal.

1984
The 15th-century deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayan is stolen from the Narayan Temple in the Patko Tol neighbourhood in Patan, located in the Lalitpur district in the south-central part of Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. 

Between 1984- and 1990
The 15th-century deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayan is illegally transported out of Nepal and into the United States.

1989
A photograph of the 15th-century deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana is published on page 246 in Stolen Images of Nepal, a book by Lain S. Bangdel, former Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy.

This publication is the culmination of a project was undertaken by the Royal Nepal Academy in which research was carried out to document known stolen artefacts from the Valley of Kathmandu.

22 March 1990
Despite the previous publication, the 15th century, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana stolen from the Narayan Temple in Patko Tol is auctioned at Sotheby’s New York during its Sale 5987: Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art.  The artefact is listed as Lot 278 and is purchased by David T. Owsley.

Later in 1990
David T. Owsley loans the 15th century, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana stolen from the Narayan Temple in Patko Tol to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) as part of a 30-year long-term loan agreement.

01 October 1999
Journalist, writer and civil rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit becomes aware that the 15th century, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana stolen from the Narayan Temple has been auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York in 1990 and writes about the Murti's sale at Sotheby's in his article “Gods in Exile” in Himal magazine, bringing the sale to the attention of artist Joy Lynn Davis. 

2013
David T. Owsley pledges a portion of his large personal collection of South Asian art to museums. 

In total Owsley’s name appears 274 times in the Dallas Museum of Art 2013 catalogue "The Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas at the Dallas Museum of Art." Some of these objects are on display in the DMA, but few are fully documented in the museum’s online collections inventory as the bulk of these are loans, making them more difficult for potential claimants to trace their origins.

2013-2014
Artist Joy Lynn Davis paints a commemorative version of the stolen 15th century, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana as part of her project “Remembering the Lost” which documents art theft from Nepal.  By the conclusion of her research Davis will have 

12 December 2013
The 15th century, deity statue of Lakshmi-Narayana is published in a catalogue The Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas at the Dallas Museum of Art on Page 94 listed as an intended bequest of David T. Owsley.  The listing makes no mention of the object's provenance. 

2015
A year after finished the painting, Joy Lynn Davis located the Lakshmi-Narayan sculpture on display in the South Asian Art collection at the Dallas Museum of Art via a Google Image search after a blogger posted a photograph of the Lakshmi-Narayan while at an event at the Dallas Museum of Art. 

2016
At the start of Joy Lynn Davis' research, INTERPOL's database of stolen art included six stone sculptures from the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.  By 2016, with the help of UNESCO, Davis had now documented a total of 160 Kathmandu Valley consecrated sculptures which could then be included in INTERPOL's Stolen Works of Art Database.

2017
Joy Lynn Davis exhibited her stolen murti paintings and research, and gave a talk about the illicit trade of Nepal’s cultural heritage at a conference on the ethics of the art trade at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, using the Lakshmi Narayan sculpture as a case study. There she meets Dr. Erin L. Thompson, Associate Professor of Art Crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). 


19 November 2019 

20 November 2019
The Dallas Museum of Art responds to Dr. Thompson's Tweet on Twitter, promising to investigate the object's history. 

December 2019
Sometime after Dr. Erin L. Thompson's tweet, the Lakshmi-Narayana is removed from public display at the Dallas Museum of Art and the FBI become involved in the case.  

24 January 2020
Dr. Erin L. Thompson pens an article for the journal Hyperallergic providing the general public with details of the theft of the Lakshmi-Narayana (elsewhere described as Vasudeva-kamalaja) statue, on long-term loan to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), via David Owsley.

Image Credit: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

2 March 2021 
Officials from the Dallas FBI Field Office and the Dallas Museum of Art announce the formal transfer of the recovered Lakshmi-Narayana previously on loan to the museum from David OWSLEY to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
With the full support of the object’s US Owner, the Stele of Lakshmi-Narayana is transported from Dallas, Texas to Washington, D.C. for the formal handover ceremony. 

Image Credit: Joy Lynn Davis Facebook


6 March 2021 
37 years after its theft Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal to the United States of America received the beautiful mūrti of “Vasudeva-Kamalaja” (also known as Lakshmi-Narayan) handed over from the representative of the US Government Timothy N. Dunham, Deputy Assistant Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in a ceremony organized at the Nepal Embassy in Washington DC. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

References used for this chronology:
--------------------------------

‘A Statue Stolen 35 Years Ago from Patan Exhibited at Dallas Museum of Art’. Kathmandu Post, 20 November 2019. https://kathmandupost.com/art-culture/2019/11/20/a-statue-stolen-38-years-ago-from-patan-exhibited-at-dallas-museum-of-art.
Bangdel, Lain S. Stolen Images of Nepal. Royal Nepal Academy, 1989.
Blay, Christopher. ‘Art Crime Professor Erin L. Thompson Points to Stolen Statue at Dallas Museum of Art’. Glasstire (blog), 30 January 2020. https://glasstire.com/2020/01/30/art-crime-professor-erin-l-thompson-points-to-stolen-statue-at-dallas-museum-of-art/.
Dallas Museum of Art. ‘Dallas Museum of Art, Embassy of Nepal, and Federal Bureau of Investigation to Transfer Stele of Lakshmi-Narayana To the  Federal Democratic Republic of  Nepal’, 5 March 2021. https://dma.org/press-release/dallas-museum-art-embassy-nepal-and-federal-bureau-investigation-transfer-stele.
Davis, Joy Lynn. ‘A Gift to the Dallas Museum of Art by Joy Lynn Davis’. Facebook, 4 March 2021. https://www.facebook.com/Joy-Lynn-Davis-121478937004/photos/10158012279237005.
Deva, Krishna. Images of Nepal. Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, 1984.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. ‘FBI Dallas and Dallas Museum of Art Announce Transfer of Stele of Lakshmi-Narayana to Government of Nepal’. Press Release, 5 March 2021. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/dallas/news/press-releases/fbi-dallas-and-dallas-museum-of-art-announce-transfer-of-stele-of-lakshmi-narayana-to-government-of-nepal.
Granberry, Michael. ‘Dallas Museum of Art Removes Object That Website Contends Is a “Deity Stolen from a Temple in Nepal”’. Dallas News, 30 January 2020. https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/2020/01/30/dallas-museum-of-art-removes-object-that-website-contends-is-a-deity-stolen-from-a-temple-in-nepal/.
Kanak Mani Dixit. ‘Gods in Exile’. Himal, 1 October 1999. https://www.himalmag.com/gods-in-exile/.
‘Press Release on the Handover of the Vasudeva-Kamalaja Statue – Embassy of Nepal, Washington DC, USA’. Accessed 7 March 2021. https://us.nepalembassy.gov.np/press-release-on-the-handover-of-the-vasudeva-kamalaja-statue/.
‘Repatriations – Remembering the Lost’. Accessed 7 March 2021. http://rememberingthelost.com/repatriations/.
Sijapati, Alisha. ‘Replicating Nepal’s Stolen Gods’, 21 February 2020. https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/replicating-nepals-stolen-gods/.
INTERPOL. ‘Stolen Works of Art Database’. Accessed 8 March 2021. https://www.interpol.int/en/Crimes/Cultural-heritage-crime/Stolen-Works-of-Art-Database.
The Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas at the Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas Museum of Art, 2013.
Thompson, Erin L. ‘Stolen Deities Resurface in a Dallas Museum’. Hyperallergic, 24 January 2020. https://hyperallergic.com/530848/stolen-deities-resurface-in-a-dallas-museum/.
‘US Hands over Historical Statue of Laxmi-Narayan to Nepal’. Khabarhub, 6 March 2021, sec. News. https://english.khabarhub.com/2021/06/168030/.