05-25-2004, 07:46 PM
"Hell, Yes, It Was Smuggled!": Norton Simon/Pratapaditya Pal
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Lucian Harris for The Art Newspaper
By 1971, the American canned-food magnate Norton Simon was already
legendary for the buying spree of European masterpieces which he had
relentlessly pursued since the mid-1950s. Aged 64, honeymooning in
India with his new wife, the movie star Jennifer Jones, he was
suddenly smitten by the temple sculpture of the subcontinent. Serious
collecting of Indian art was still in its infancy in the U.S., and
Simon was undoubtedly attracted by how cheaply the best examples of
Indian sculpture could be bought. His early untrained eye is evident
from the mid-19th-century ivory chess set he bought on this trip, a
charming piece of tourist tat that stands out in comparison with the
masterpieces of Indian sculpture that he would go on to acquire.
It was at this time, and for this reason, that Simon first sought
advice from Pratapaditya Pal, then newly arrived at the Los Angeles
County Museum. Present "at the beginning and the end, but not in the
middle phase" of Simon's incredible decade of buying, Dr. Pal acted
as an occasional adviser on the acquisition of a collection that most
others would have taken a lifetime to assemble.
By 1973 Simon had been offered an exhibition at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Unfortunately, the star exhibit, a
magnificent 10th-century bronze Nataraja, the dancing form of Shiva,
for which he had paid $1 million, was impounded in the U.K., where it
was being restored, after the Indian government declared it to have
been stolen from the Shivapuram temple in southern India. Simon
insisted that the show would not go ahead without the sculpture and
threatened to bring down the house by exposing objects in the
Metropolitan's own collection that had suspect provenances. Dr. Pal
notes that this incident "resulted in a pause in our relationship."
As increasing scrutiny is given to the provenance of antiquities on
the international art market and, as ethical sensitivities have
become more acute, it is not surprising that Dr. Pal declines to
repeat Simon's comments on the Nataraja published in The New York
Times: "Hell, yes, it was smuggled," he was quoted as saying. "I
spent between $15 and $16 million in the last two years on Asian art,
and most of it was smuggled."
Simon stopped collecting Asian art in the early 1980s, by which time
he had turned the ailing Pasadena Art Museum into the Norton Simon
Museum. Since his death in 1993 and the appointment of Dr. Pal as a
research fellow at the museum in 1995, the Asian collections have
flourished, being substantially expanded by a series of donations,
and reinstalled in the remodeled galleries in 1997-98.
Dr. Pal's catalogs, of which two out of three volumes have been
published, are a complete description of the collection. Volume I
concerns the core of the collection, art from the Indian
subcontinent. Prefaced with an historical overview, 229 catalog
entries are arranged chronologically and subdivided by geographical
location. The first section covers the art of northern India and the
Deccan up to the seventh century A.D. The most substantial groups are
from the Buddhist Gandhara kingdom on the northwest frontier of
present-day Pakistan, and the Kushan kingdom in and around Mathura in
present-day Uttar Pradesh, also the source of a smaller group of
later Hindu Gupta sculptures.
These are followed by the art of northern India from the seventh to
the 19th century, including Hindu sculptures from Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh; Jain images from Gujarat and Rajasthan; late Buddhist
and Hindu sculptures from the Palas and other dynasties in Bihar and
Bengal.
The final part deals with the sculpture of southern India from the
ninth to the 18th century and consists mainly of Hindu bronzes of the
Chola and Vijayanagar periods in Tamil Nadu and the Deccan, as well
as schist figures from Jain and Hindu temples in Karnataka.
Although the publication of objects is noted throughout, recent
provenances are less well documented. For example, the two first-
century B.C. railing pillars from the great Buddhist stupa at Bharhut
are among the leading treasures of the collection, but nothing is
said of their history after their discovery and publication by
Alexander Cunningham in the 1870s. Nonetheless, Dr. Pal's scholarship
is ample compensation.
The second volume concerns art from the Himalayas and China. With few
exceptions, most of the Himalayan objects are from Nepal and Tibet,
dating from after the 12th century.
Following an introductory essay on the arts of the region, the
catalog of 185 artifacts is divided into sections on the sculpture
and ritual objects of India, Nepal, China and Tibet, followed by a
section on book covers and paintings.
Some of the finest works in this part of the collection are bronze
and gilt-copper alloy deities from Nepal and Tibet around the 13th
century. These include a large standing figure of the goddess Tara, a
beautiful figure of Indra in regal recline, and a Nepali Bodhisattva
of the early Malla period.
Notable in the final section is a number of intricately carved wooden
manuscript covers from Tibet dating from the 11th to the 16th
century. Of the paintings, many are Tibetan mandalas and thangkas,
meditational aids and cosmic diagrams painted on cotton, but of
greatest importance is a Newar ragamala (musical personifications)
album from around 1625 with two painted wood covers and containing 36
paintings. One of only two complete Nepali albums of this type, the
different ragas (musical passages) are represented in a distinctive
style quite in contrast with ragamala albums from northern India, few
of which predate 1650.
Pratapaditya Pal, Asian art at the Norton Simon Museum (Yale
University Press, New Haven and London, 2003), Vol. I: Art from the
Indian Subcontinent, 352 pp, 198 b/w ills, 152 col. ills, £50 (hb)
ISBN 0300099150; Vol. II: Art from the Himalayas and China, 57 b/w
ills, 211 col. ills, £50 (hb) ISBN 0300099266
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/collecting...x_0525conn.html
ADVERTISEMENT
Lucian Harris for The Art Newspaper
By 1971, the American canned-food magnate Norton Simon was already
legendary for the buying spree of European masterpieces which he had
relentlessly pursued since the mid-1950s. Aged 64, honeymooning in
India with his new wife, the movie star Jennifer Jones, he was
suddenly smitten by the temple sculpture of the subcontinent. Serious
collecting of Indian art was still in its infancy in the U.S., and
Simon was undoubtedly attracted by how cheaply the best examples of
Indian sculpture could be bought. His early untrained eye is evident
from the mid-19th-century ivory chess set he bought on this trip, a
charming piece of tourist tat that stands out in comparison with the
masterpieces of Indian sculpture that he would go on to acquire.
It was at this time, and for this reason, that Simon first sought
advice from Pratapaditya Pal, then newly arrived at the Los Angeles
County Museum. Present "at the beginning and the end, but not in the
middle phase" of Simon's incredible decade of buying, Dr. Pal acted
as an occasional adviser on the acquisition of a collection that most
others would have taken a lifetime to assemble.
By 1973 Simon had been offered an exhibition at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Unfortunately, the star exhibit, a
magnificent 10th-century bronze Nataraja, the dancing form of Shiva,
for which he had paid $1 million, was impounded in the U.K., where it
was being restored, after the Indian government declared it to have
been stolen from the Shivapuram temple in southern India. Simon
insisted that the show would not go ahead without the sculpture and
threatened to bring down the house by exposing objects in the
Metropolitan's own collection that had suspect provenances. Dr. Pal
notes that this incident "resulted in a pause in our relationship."
As increasing scrutiny is given to the provenance of antiquities on
the international art market and, as ethical sensitivities have
become more acute, it is not surprising that Dr. Pal declines to
repeat Simon's comments on the Nataraja published in The New York
Times: "Hell, yes, it was smuggled," he was quoted as saying. "I
spent between $15 and $16 million in the last two years on Asian art,
and most of it was smuggled."
Simon stopped collecting Asian art in the early 1980s, by which time
he had turned the ailing Pasadena Art Museum into the Norton Simon
Museum. Since his death in 1993 and the appointment of Dr. Pal as a
research fellow at the museum in 1995, the Asian collections have
flourished, being substantially expanded by a series of donations,
and reinstalled in the remodeled galleries in 1997-98.
Dr. Pal's catalogs, of which two out of three volumes have been
published, are a complete description of the collection. Volume I
concerns the core of the collection, art from the Indian
subcontinent. Prefaced with an historical overview, 229 catalog
entries are arranged chronologically and subdivided by geographical
location. The first section covers the art of northern India and the
Deccan up to the seventh century A.D. The most substantial groups are
from the Buddhist Gandhara kingdom on the northwest frontier of
present-day Pakistan, and the Kushan kingdom in and around Mathura in
present-day Uttar Pradesh, also the source of a smaller group of
later Hindu Gupta sculptures.
These are followed by the art of northern India from the seventh to
the 19th century, including Hindu sculptures from Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh; Jain images from Gujarat and Rajasthan; late Buddhist
and Hindu sculptures from the Palas and other dynasties in Bihar and
Bengal.
The final part deals with the sculpture of southern India from the
ninth to the 18th century and consists mainly of Hindu bronzes of the
Chola and Vijayanagar periods in Tamil Nadu and the Deccan, as well
as schist figures from Jain and Hindu temples in Karnataka.
Although the publication of objects is noted throughout, recent
provenances are less well documented. For example, the two first-
century B.C. railing pillars from the great Buddhist stupa at Bharhut
are among the leading treasures of the collection, but nothing is
said of their history after their discovery and publication by
Alexander Cunningham in the 1870s. Nonetheless, Dr. Pal's scholarship
is ample compensation.
The second volume concerns art from the Himalayas and China. With few
exceptions, most of the Himalayan objects are from Nepal and Tibet,
dating from after the 12th century.
Following an introductory essay on the arts of the region, the
catalog of 185 artifacts is divided into sections on the sculpture
and ritual objects of India, Nepal, China and Tibet, followed by a
section on book covers and paintings.
Some of the finest works in this part of the collection are bronze
and gilt-copper alloy deities from Nepal and Tibet around the 13th
century. These include a large standing figure of the goddess Tara, a
beautiful figure of Indra in regal recline, and a Nepali Bodhisattva
of the early Malla period.
Notable in the final section is a number of intricately carved wooden
manuscript covers from Tibet dating from the 11th to the 16th
century. Of the paintings, many are Tibetan mandalas and thangkas,
meditational aids and cosmic diagrams painted on cotton, but of
greatest importance is a Newar ragamala (musical personifications)
album from around 1625 with two painted wood covers and containing 36
paintings. One of only two complete Nepali albums of this type, the
different ragas (musical passages) are represented in a distinctive
style quite in contrast with ragamala albums from northern India, few
of which predate 1650.
Pratapaditya Pal, Asian art at the Norton Simon Museum (Yale
University Press, New Haven and London, 2003), Vol. I: Art from the
Indian Subcontinent, 352 pp, 198 b/w ills, 152 col. ills, £50 (hb)
ISBN 0300099150; Vol. II: Art from the Himalayas and China, 57 b/w
ills, 211 col. ills, £50 (hb) ISBN 0300099266
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/collecting...x_0525conn.html