Page 114 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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For museums with less experience in collecting Chinese art, Loo played a significant

role as their consultant and educator. In the transaction of the bronze finial (WAM

1941.47), Loo explained the category of Sino-Siberian Art to the Worcester Art Museum

Director C. Sawyer, “This actual falconer was discovered in YU LING FU not far from

the Ordos Region which the style confirms its locality of discovery. As we all know, the

Ordos Region produced an important series of bronze plaques, finials, buckles etc that we

used to call Scythian Art but now we call it Sino-Siberian Art.” 249 Loo sent his associate

to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum to examine a collection of jades and other

items offered by Mrs. Sayles to the museum. After the examination, which seemed to

yield the unsatisfactory quality of the objects under consideration, the RISD director G.

Washburn wrote to Loo, “Frankie confirmed our worst fears about the materials, which I

hope will not be accepted by the museum”. 250

Dealer-Scholar 251

What distinguished Loo from most of his fellow dealers was not only his superb

salesmanship but also his scholarly approach to the business. Richard E. Fuller, Loo’s

client and close friend, described Loo as a person with “scientific zeal”, who attracted

“the utmost cooperation from the leading Western scholars” (Fuller 1958, 8).

Loo himself was known as an art expert, publisher, and patron of scholars. In 1937 he

published the Index of the History of Chinese Arts: An Aide-Memoire for Beginners, a

summary of his three-decade experience in the field of Chinese art. The handbook

249
C. T. Loo C. Sawyer to November 17, 1941, WAMA.
250
Frankie possibly referred to Loo’s associate Frank Caro.G. B.Washburn to C. T. Loo,
October 31, 1946, folder C. T. Loo & Co.,1945-1949, RISDA.
251 Many scholars and writers were also museum curators.