Page 103 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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inscriptions”(Fig 14, 17). In the 1930s and the 1940s, while many museums and

collectors purchased a large number of bronzes from Loo, the MFA was less interested in

bronzes (Fontein 1992, 13). 212 The inventory card shows that in 1941 a bronze vessel gui

was first offered to G.L. Winthrop, and then to the Freer Gallery before it was taken to

the MFA on approval. 213 This sequence suggests that Loo probably considered the MFA

a less promising buyer compared with G. L.Winthrop and the Freer Gallery. Even Loo’s

few offers of bronzes to the MFA did not have much success, as Tomita remarked, “…I

may add that frankly we here are more particularly interested in fine Chinese paintings

than in bronzes.” 214 Detecting the MFA’s interest in painting, Loo offered the museum an

entire painting collection he had acquired from the renowned Shanghai collector T. Y.

Zhang. 215

Aware of the dynamics in the American museum world, Loo employed different

strategies to deal with different types of museums. “Flagship” museums such as the

Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Freer Gallery of Art

, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology were

among Loo’s most important clients because they not only acquired a large number of

211 C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, February 16, 1922, Lai-Yuan Co., box: Unofficial
Correspondence L, 1910-1922, AAOA-MFA.
212 The Freer Gallery, A. Pillsbury and G. L. Winthrop were major buyers of Loo’s
ancient bronzes.
213
“1941 Jan, 2nd sold to Winthrop for $10,500; 1941 Jan 6 returned from Mr. Winthrop;
1941 Jan 17 taken by Mr. Loo to Mr. Lodge $10,500…; 1941 Jan 20 returned from Freer;
1941 Feb 28 th taken by Mr. Loo to Boston $10,000” (Inventory card 87062, FCA). For
details of the transaction of this bronze, see Chapter One, pp.72-3.
214
K. Tomita to C. T. Loo, May 10, 1947, April 20, 1936 to November 28, 1947, folder
C. T. Loo, box: I to L, 1936-1947, AAOA-MFA.
215 C. T. Loo to K. Tomita, Nov. 24, 1947, folder C. T. Loo, box: I to L, 1936-1947,
AAOA-MFA.