A gray schist figure of Shakyamuni Buddha, Ancient region of Gandhara, 3rd / 4th century

Private American collection.

Jonathan Tucker Antonia Tozer Asian Art Ltd., London, early 2000s.

A closely related figure of seated Buddha in the British Museum is illustrated in W. Zwalf, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, cat. no. 28. 

The seven lots of finely carved Gandharan sculpture offered here, lots 828-834, emanate from the collection of Paul Theroux, the celebrated travel writer and novelist, famous especially for ‘The Mosquito Coast’. His fascination with Gandharan art was inspired by the first piece he saw, the statue of Fasting Siddhartha in the Lahore Museum in October 1973.