The Buddha was bought for £850,000 with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum’s Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund, the Friends of the V&A and private donors.
We can now confirm that the Buddha was bought from the London specialist Asian art dealer John Eskenazi.
John Eskenazi and the BM’s Buddha…
TOWARDS the end of March it was reported that The British Museum and the V&A had joined forces for the first time to acquire a rare Indian 7th century metal statue of a standing figure of the Buddha Sakyamuni, the first to enter a public European collection. After a tour of provincial museums it will be shown alternatively at the two institutions.
