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FIG. 3 (lower left): Ancestor head. Leti, Southern Moluccas. 18th–early 19th century. Wood. Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, Yale University Art Gallery, inv. ILE2012.30.133. Photo: Johan Vipper. FIG. 4 (below): Chieftain’s door. Kenyah or Kayan, Borneo. 19th century. Wood, paint. Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, Yale University Art Gallery, inv. ILE2012.30.286. Photo: Johan Vipper. 103 the second half. Jaffe now offered to buy this part to add to the founding collection of the planned department. With one stroke the future department—at the time still dormant—gained an entirely new dimension. At about the same time Hunter Thompson, a Canadian collector of early Indonesian gold, primarily from Java, was looking for a home for his and his wife Valerie’s large collection of almost 500 pieces, and Holmgren contacted him and suggested the new department at the Yale Art Gallery. Thompson liked the idea of making the collection available for further study, and leaving it to an active university museum also appealed to him. He and his wife donated the collection in 2007 and 2008. This meant that the future department already had three core collections of outstanding quality. The Javanese gold, most of it dated from the eighth to the thirteenth century, but some of it pre-historic, added considerable historical depth. Strengths and Scopes of the Collection When I arrived in 2010 the department did not yet have its own gallery space, as that was only to be available with the completion of the Yale University Art Gallery’s


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