LOT 1543

Gandharan Multi-Tier Stele

2ND-4TH CENTURY AD

38 1/4" (71.6 kg, 97 cm including stand).

A carved schist stele with figural ornament in five tiers; lower row with facing cross-legged figures, profile and facing animals; second row with frieze depicting a nursing mother with infant and a female in animated pose among a group of standing figures; third row with facing robed figure on a horse supported by a crouching man, flanked by tiered ranks of robed attendants; fourth row a seated facing figure of Buddha on lotus-flower dais with attendants; top row with Buddha, reclining attendant and nude male; birds and other details to the rim; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Property of a London gentleman; previously with central London gallery; imported from the USA in the early 1970s; formerly with Mahboubian Gallery, New York since the late 1960s; supplied with geological report No. TL005205, by geological consultant Dr R. L. Bonewitz; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.163786-10113.