Page 119 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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Sculpture in America”, offers a good example. In the article, at least nine out of thirty-six

illustrated objects were in or previously in Loo’s collection (Davidson 1939). 260

The delicate relationship between an object’s scholarly and commercial value is

illustrated by the relationship between Loo, the MFA, and the prestigious sinologist, Paul

Pelliot. After Loo made an offer of a Buddhist stele (MFA 23.120) to the MFA in 1922,

he suggested the importance of the stele by informing J.E. Lodge that Pelliot had shown

an interest in publishing it. Loo wrote, “Mr. Pelliot found this monument so interesting

that he asked to publish it, probably in a special Edition of the Ars Asiatica…I think it is

quite necessary to have your permission for it, so would you be so kind to let me know

whether you find any inconvenience for Mr. Pelliot to publish the stele in case should you

decide to acquire it for your Honorable Museum.” 261 In Loo’s negotiation in 1924 with

the MFA regarding the four painted tiles (MFA 25.10-13), when Lodge questioned the

importance of the tiles, Loo again timely referred to Pelliot, “…who is very much

interested in these paintings, that he wishes to publish if we have enough materials to do

so”. 262

The Network

In the first half of the twentieth century, the incipient Chinese art scholarship, the

large-scale circulation of Chinese antiquities, and a coterie of experts encouraged the

formation of a complex and dynamic networks, in which all the players were

260 There might be more objects previously in Loo’s collection, which had been sold to
collectors or museums by the time when the article was published.
261
C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, August 23, 1922 and October 21, 1922, folder: Lai-Yuan Co.,
box: Unofficial Correspondence L, 1910-1922, AAOA-MFA.
262 J.E. Lodge to C. T. Loo, October 16, 1924; C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, October 27, 1924,
folder and box unknown, AAOA-MFA.