Page 177 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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the Chinese Government vol. 4 1936, 120) The Chinese government’s nationalistic

agenda was noticed by David Percival, British collector and the principal organizer of the

exhibition. He observed that the Chinese exhibition “aspires to illustrate the culture of the

oldest surviving civilization in the world from the dawn of its history to the year 1800…”

(Percival 1935,171). 369

The archaeological undertakings in China and China’s cultural diplomacy had a

profound impact on Loo’s art dealing. The arrival of newly found Chinese antiquities in

the American art market offered Loo new profit-making opportunities because a large

quantity of antiquities could be bought in China at a comparatively low price, and after

370
promotion, they could be sold in America at a much higher price. Newly found

archaeological objects also expanded the range and scope of his business. Between the

1920s and the 1940s Loo acquired and sold a large number of objects reportedly

unearthed from important archaeological sites. Alfred Salmony noted that Loo’s 1940

Exhibition of Chinese Stone Sculptures included early stone sculptures from Anyang, “A

few years ago, no one would have expected to be able to start off with Shang” (Salmony

1940b, 9).

Time also served as an important organizing principle in Loo’s business. The

construction of a coherent historical narrative was crucial to the presentation and

369
Basil Gray, one of the participants of the exhibition, however, was disappointed by the
fact that the exhibition was turned into an international relation gambit. He observed that
the original aim of revealing to the world for the first time the treasures of the imperial
collections was overtaken by the political aim of advancing cultural relations with the
Chinese Republic (Gray 1985-6, 31).
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Loo made profit out of the difference between the price of an object he paid for in
China and the price at which he sold the object in the American market, or the difference
between prices that changed over time in the American market.