Page 168 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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offered America an excellent opportunity to compete with Europe in the collection of

Chinese art. The formation of the Chinese collection in the Freer Gallery of Art offers a

case in point. The first American national museum devoted to Asian art, the Freer Gallery

was established according to the vision of its founder, Charles Lang Freer to create an

American collection of Chinese art which would surpass its European counterparts.

Collecting early Chinese art met his need. In 1916, C. T. Loo informed Freer of the

scarcity of early Chinese art in London, “As regard to the Chinese art, the market is very

slow, …Of course they are all porcelains, I don’t think there is any early pieces to be

found here.” 351 Freer responded, “As a rule, the English collectors do not purchase

specimens earlier than the Ming period.” 352 It is not surprising that from 1914 to 1918

Freer acquired a large collection of early Chinese antiquities dating prior to the Ming

dynasty, which formed the core of the Freer collection. Freer’s ambition was realized

when the Freer Gallery of Art opened to the public in 1923, as the collector and Freer’s

close friend Agnes Meyer proudly announced, “…if European scholars must now come

to America to see the finest example of Chinese painting, Chinese jades and bronzes, it

was because of Freer.” (Conn 2001, 168; Meyer 1927, 76-8)

Loo’s dealing in ancient Chinese art capitalized on this U.S.-Europe dynamics. In

response to the MFA curator Lodge’s inquiry about a gilt bronze statute of Guanyin, Loo

wrote back, “I am sorry to say that at the present moment I am not (at?) liberty to (give?)

the price as I have just given an option of this figure to some Museum here in Europe, but

351 C. T. Loo to C. L. Freer, July 16, 1916, CLFP-FGA.
352 C.L. Freer to C. T. Loo, August 2, 1916, CLFP-FGA.