2nd-3rd century AD. An outstanding statue of Buddha, seated in a padm?sana or lotus position on a low throne, covered by a pillow and drapery, supported by two lions on each side, central relief representing an embroidery on the cloth decorated with two preaching bodhisattvas and their disciples, the first bodhisattva in the same position as Buddha and the other one with raised right hand in Abhaya mudra, a gesture of fearlessness; the statue reinforced on the back by a later added squared plinth; mounted on a custom-made display stand. See Ingholt, H., Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957; Liu, X., Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchange, AD 1–600, Oxford University Press, 1994; Taddei, M. ‘Afghanistan, Sculpture’ in Dictionary of Art, New York, 1996; Zwalf, W., A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, 2 vols., London: British Museum Press, 1996; Behrendt, K.A., The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007; Brancaccio, P., The Buddhist Caves at Auraganbad: transformation in Art and Religion, Leiden-Boston, 2011.1.6 kg total, 22cm including stand (8 1/2"). Ex property of a London lady; formerly in the David Lindhal collection since 1969; accompanied by an archaeological expertise by Dr. Raffaele D’Amato; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10408-169982. Gandharan control of the high mountain passes was vital to the international commerce of the sea routes cross the Arabian Sea, which supplied an expanding overland trade through Gandhara and continued on to Central Asia and China. This made the region wealthy and the resulting cosmopolitan elites of Gandhara became some of the most powerful Buddhist patrons in all of South Asia. Buddhism probably reached Gandhara as early as the 3rd century BC; sculptures representing Buddha began to be present from the 1st or 2nd century AD. The hairstyle of our bronze, the form of his robes, and the treatment of the drapes, reflect stylistic contacts with the classical traditions of the West. The sensitive modelling of the head and face has an expressive quality not seen in the more formal images in stone from this period. The depictions of the Buddha seated on a platform over which a plain cloth is draped. The way in which the drapery folds, suggest that this is a cloth of medium weight, but in our example, the Buddha is seated on a low, backless throne and the textile over the throne is thick and elaborately decorated. The decoration occurs in vertical panels, of which the centre panel is almost a square and shows the embroidery with the two bodhisattvas, the enlightened beings who have put off entering paradise in order to help others attain enlightenment. The figure of the central Buddha flanked by the bodhisattvas is well visible in the Gandhara art, and a similar example to our small sculpture is the beautiful image of the Aurangabad cave no.5, interior shrine, where the main Buddha in padm?sana is flanked by bodhisattvas.