Sun Times October 25, 1988


             Art Institute offers plan to return Thai carving


     By K. O. Dawes and Philip Franchine

       The  "Reclining  Vishnu" carving may be going home to  Thailand
     after  a  20-year odyssey if a plan announced Monday by  the  Art
     Institute of Chicago works out.
       The Art Institute said that once it gets a work of equal  merit
     from the Elizabeth Cheney Foundation here,  expected within three
     weeks,  it  will relinquish the carving,  a national treasure  in
     Thailand.
       Thai  government officials have demanded "unconditional" return
     of the carving,  which they say was stolen from a Hindu temple in
     the 1960s.
       "My over-all reaction is cautions optimism," said David  Ambuel
     of  the Thai Vishnu Lintel Committee,  which has lobbied for  the
     carving's  return.   "People  are hoping that it's going to  come
     true."
       "I haven't gotten anything from the Art Institute.   I have  no
     reaction," said Thailand Consul Charal Plangtrakul.
       Art Institute and Cheney Foundation officials would not discuss
     the value of the Vishnu carving or its replacement.
       "This  solution meets our requirement for just compensation and
     we  are  glad,  therefore,  to be able to donate  the  lintel  to
     Thailand," said James N. Wood, Art Institute director.
       Word  that the Art Institute would relinquish the Vishnu lintel
     bas  relief  to  the Thai government came on the eve  of  a  City
     Council hearing on the matter.
       Ald. Luis V. Gutierrez (26th), a sponsor of a resolution asking
     the  Art Institute to return the Vishnu,  said Monday,  "The  Art
     Institute  stalled  this  hearing in the City  Council  for  four
     months until they knew they couldn't stall it any more."
       Gutierrez said today's hearing still would be held and  invited
     Art  Institute  representatives  to make  a  public  announcement
     there.
       Art  Institute  spokesman Larry TerMolen said museum  officials
     would not attend the hearing.  He said the Vishnu was not stolen,
     but  was purchased on the open market from a New York dealer  who
     bought it from a Bangkok dealer under Thai jurisdiction.
       Gutierrez said he believed the Art Institute feared "claims  on
     other  pieces of art" and "couldn't distinguish between  national
     and artistic importance."
       "If  the Liberty Bell showed up in a foreign museum,  would  we
     agree  to  exchange it for another national treasure?"  Gutierrez
     asked.
       The controversy began in 1972, when a visiting Thai prince told
     Art Institute officials that the carving was a missing antiquity.
       Negotiators for the Art Institute and the Thai government could
     not agree on how the museum should be compensated if it  returned
     the carving.
       Alan   Drebin,   a  Northwestern  University  business   school
     professor,  became  aware  of  the "stir" over  the  lintel  when
     teaching summers in Thailand, said Scott McCue, spokesman for the
     Cheney Foundation.   Drebin,  a Cheney director, suggested a plan
     much like the one announced Monday,  said McCue.  Thailand claims
     the  one-ton,  900-year-old  carving of the Hindu god Vishnu  was
     moved by helicopter from a Khmer Dynasty temple when U. S. troops
     were in the mountainous area.
       It  was  purchased by Art Institute trustee  and  former  board
     president James Alsdorf from a New York dealer in 1967.

     [Caption  under  photo  of the  lintel  reads:   "The  `Reclining
     Vishnu'  carving,  which has been the source of a dispute between
     the government of Thailand and the Art Institute of Chicago."]