Page 165 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, spoke of the importance of collecting

Asian art to the building of the museum’s collection as the representative of a universal

culture. In the letter to the Museum Committee, he stated, “There is a deep significance

in the fact that the art of the Extreme-Orient should be so well represented in America: -

the most western of western nations. It makes our Museum a potent factor in the scheme

of universal culture, and entitles it to the attention not only of (Americans?) but also

humanity at large.” 343

It is noteworthy that America’s interest in Chinese art was the result of America’s

intensified political and finical involvement in China in the first half of the twentieth

century (Iriye 1992). Art objects became souvenirs and emblems of its imperialist and

capitalist presence in China. America’s aspiration for power, vastness and history was

344
also reflected in its identification with the history and status of imperial China. For a

nation with a comparatively brief history, China’s past and its antiquities constituted a

source of awe and wonder. An Art News article, for instance, marveled at C. T. Loo’s

collection of bronzes, potteries and paintings, “Many of these antedate Roman and Greek

345
sculpture”. The collections of Chinese antiquities in American museums were viewed

as a manifestation of “America’s traditional gesture of friendliness toward the oldest of

living civilizations” (Carter 1929, vi). The romantic vision of China as an ancient and

343
The Extreme-Orient refers to the Far East. “Okakura Kakuzo. The Development of the
Department of Chinese and Japanese Art, May 9, 1908.” Folder: Okakura Kakuzo, 1908,
Chinese and Japanese Department Business, box: Okakura Tenshin, Sorted Papers,
AAOA-MFA.
344
Craig Clunas argued that the collection of Chinese imperial art in British museums has
to do with the Great Britain’s nostalgia for its status as an empire in the past (Clunas
2004, 468-9).
345 “Loo Brings Bronzes Buried for Ages,” Art News, November 29, 1924.