Page 120 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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interconnected. One player needed not only to deal with other player individually, but

also to take into consideration the dynamics between other players. Loo often worked

with both collector and museum curators in one transaction with the awareness of the

dynamics between the collector and the museum, and the blurred line between private

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collections and museum collections.

On the one hand, the museum needed to cultivate its relation with its benefactors, who

would acquire objects for the museum, or as future gifts. Magnate collectors such as

Denman W. Ross and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. were museum benefactors. In the

transaction of the stone shrine (MFA 22.380), Loo knew well the relationship between

the curator Lodge and the museum trustee Ross. After receiving the offer of the stone

shrine, Lodge suggested that Loo send a set of photographs to D.W. Ross. When Loo

could not reach Ross, he turned to Lodge for help. Loo wrote to Lodge, “But as I will

ship this miniature temple to the States in September or October, as will you kindly let

me know whether you wish me to ship it directly to Boston in case that will enable you

both to examine the stones at leisure.” 264 In the transaction of a Chinese gilt bronze figure

of Guanyin, Loo approached John D. Rockefeller, Jr., after he had failed to sell it to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Loo quoted the price of $40,000 and delivered the

message to Rockefeller, “If, however, Mr. Rockefeller wishes to present this to a

263 Benjamin March observed in his book China and Japan in Our Museums (1929) that
about sixty percent of the objects passed from private hands to public institutions (March
1929a, 12).
264 J. E. Lodge to C. T. Loo, July 27, 1921; C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, August 10, 1921,
folder: Lai-Yuan Co., box: Unofficial Correspondence L, 1910-1922, AAOA-MFA.