Page 196 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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A hardheaded bargainer, Loo often presented himself as a passionate art lover, and

Chinese art as a timeless and universal expression of beauty. He stated, “My joy in

business was principally to gather beautiful things because I always considered that

money was only a means of exchange.” (Loo 1950, 3) Loo spoke of art as an abstract and

universal concept that existed everywhere for everybody. Loo’s arguments concealed an

art object’s anchorage in time, space and the power relations that framed its meanings

and value. Loo’s handling of the Song mural and other objects, however, clearly

demonstrated that art was defined by national, economic and political boundaries, and

Chinese antiquities were reserved not for “people the world over” but for Americans

only.

If Loo was not guilty, then who was to blame? Loo remarked, “I wish they would first

blame the past ignorance of the inhabitants” (Loo 1950, 3). Loo also mentioned that some

foreigners were behind the hideous activities. In addition, Loo hinted that the Chinese

government was unable to protect its antiquities. He remarked, “It is to be hoped that they

will gather the antique relics, widely scattered, to be properly protected.” (Loo 1949,

Introduction)

Loo’s “salvage paradigm”, that Chinese culture was seen in negligence or peril and

should be saved and preserved by people equipped with scientific knowledge and

aesthetic sensibility, was shared by American curators and scholars. 394 The review of C.

394 The salvage rhetoric can be found in collecting native American art (Berlo 1992, 3)
and in George Grey Barnard and JDR Jr’s collection of medieval art. William Welles
Bosworth commented on the role of the French sculptor and collector George Grey
Barnard, who collected European sculptures and brought them to the U.S., “There must
be quantities of very fine works of Gothic Sculpture being sacrificed among the heaps of