Page 169 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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I will take pleasure of writing you as soon as I would be free of doing so.” 353 Loo was

known best for his introduction of an impressive group of early stone sculptures to major

American museums. Loo described how American buyers opened their arms for the stone

sculptures which could not be sold in Europe in the 1910s. Loo stated with reference to

eight life-sized Chinese stone statues, “I showed them to all the dealers but not one

wanted to buy and as I could not sell any early things…Photographs were presented all

over Europe but all in vain” (Loo 1940, Preface). In the winter of 1914-5, Loo distributed

a set of photographs of the statues in America and subsequently sold them to the

University Museum at Philadelphia and other American collectors. Loo played a

significant role in the formation of the Nelson Gallery’s Chinese sculpture collection. In

the 1930s, the Art News acclaimed Nelson Gallery’s Chinese sculpture collection as

“another sign of the growing appreciation in this country of Chinese sculpture which is so

354
poorly represented in most of the European collections.”
Loo’s dealing in Chinese antiquities not only responded to America’s national and

institutional aspirations, but also answered American collectors’ social and psychological

needs. Loo carefully selected and promoted items with which American collectors could

identify themselves or could use to increase their social prestige. Portraits of Chinese

noblemen and high officials were popular items in Loo’s collection, including “The Five

Old Men of Sui-yang”, depicting five high officials in the Northern Song dynasty (Fig.

353
C. T. Loo to J.E. Lodge, March 7, 1921, folder: Lai-Yuan Co., box: Unofficial
Correspondence L, 1910-1922, AAOA-MFA.
354 Art News, January 1, 1938.