The Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia is currently facing charges of misprovenance and theft regarding a marble statue displayed in its galleries since 1989. The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (MCMA), the last known owner of Peter Stephenson’s Marble Statue of the 19th century “Wounded Indian”, says in a press release that the work was stolen from his collection during a move in the 1950s.
Stephenson, a born and bred Bostonian, sculpted the “wounded Indian” in marble quarried in Vermont in 1850 and presented it in England before bringing it back to the United States. After the artist’s death at the age of 37 in 1861, the sculpture passed from the collection of the Boston-based Mercantile Library Association to that of William Emerson Baker in 1877 and then back to James W. Bartlett in 1889. According to the Washington PostLast week’s initial report of the alleged holes in the sculpture’s provenance, Bartlett stored it in the basement of the MCMA in Boston before donating it to the association in 1893 on the condition that it be properly cared for and shown publicly.
The MCMA displayed the statue in its showroom for 65 years until it disappeared during a move in 1958. The association was led to believe that the sculpture had been damaged beyond repair during the move and was thrown away.
“Wounded Indian” appeared in the Chrysler Museum’s collection in 1986, when museum benefactor Walter P. Chrysler Jr. included it in his last batch of acquisitions before his death in 1988. Chrysler Jr. reportedly acquired the sculpture of art collector James Ricau, an “eccentric character” who “cared little for documentation, whether for posterity or profit,” according to H. Nichols B. Clark, a Chrysler Museum curator who wrote the establishment book on the collection of statues.
It was Clark who pointed out the sculpture’s alleged lack of provenance in 1991, eight years before the director of the MCMA visited the museum in 1999 to confirm a researcher’s claims that the sculpture still existed and was on display at the audience.
Greg Werkheiser, the Cultural Heritage Partners attorney representing the MCMA, said Hyperallergic that Ricau lied about the origins of the statue when contacted by Clark. In 1999, after the MCMA began pressuring Chrysler for answers, the museum hinted that the MCMA may have had a copy of the sculpture and that the one on display in Norfolk was the original.
The association asked the Chrysler Museum to loan the statue for a six-month display in Boston, but that never materialized. While the museum maintains that the MCMA threw the statue away due to damage and now regrets it, director Erik Neil confirmed to the Washington Post that the institution does not have the “complete provenance” of all items in Chrysler Jr.’s collection.
Cultural heritage partners only recently acquired all of the museum’s documentation of the statue, including Clark’s 1991 investigations that questioned the museum’s ownership of the sculpture as well as the report on the condition of its acquisition indicating that the marble had suffered only superficial damage.
In 2020, the association asked the museum to acknowledge MCMA’s ownership of the statue and to reimburse the thousands of dollars MCMA spent on legal assistance. and research costs after allegedly being deceived about the provenance of the statue. The Chrysler Museum has since updated its collection provenance to reflect that the MCMA once owned the statue, but called the request for a refund a “frankly outrageous monetary request,” according to the Washington Post report.
“It’s incredibly commonplace and unethical for an institution that has been wrongfully denied ownership of something it’s owned for decades to seek a refund,” Werkheiser explained. “What makes this even more offensive is that a large portion of these costs were driven by Chrysler’s acts of deception.”
Now the MCMA is in place demand the return of the statueWerkheiser said he plans to take the matter to law enforcement and, if all else fails, prosecute.
In response to the MCMA’s claims, Chrysler Museum director Erik Neil said Hyperallergic that “there was never any indication that the statue was stolen, the MCMA never reported it as stolen, it was never listed on the art loss register.”
“This is not a case of looting, forced selling by an oppressive regime or grave robbing,” Neil continued. And regarding the MCMA’s allegations that the museum withheld the documents, Neil argued that Chrysler museum staff “have been very open with information to the MCMA”, allowing the group to view relevant documents such as such as board meeting notes and purchase contracts. Neil also maintains that the statue arrived at the museum with “significant loss” and required “substantial repairs and cleaning”, and that the museum continues to be a good steward for the work.
The MCMA was founded by goldsmith Paul Revere (best known for the phrase “The Britons are coming!”) in 1795. “Since the founding of this country, the guys at MCMA have been deeply committed to telling these stories about the innovation, and they’ve been honest in that dialogue,” Werkheiser said.
