Norton Simon's Indian art

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 UK, 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."

Posted by David on May 17, 2004 1:52 AM