Page 202 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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shown at the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Letters in Paris today by a

corresponding member, M. Rostovtseff (sic.). The specimen is extremely rare and

represents a Nomadic rider mounted on a winged lion. It was probably an ornament on

398
the cover of a libation vase.” What made this reported event a spectacle was not just
the rare object, but also an important site of display, an important collector, an important

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scholar, and an important dealer.
The following analysis of the spectacles that Loo created, and his presentational

strategies will further illuminate the network of relations and the conceptual issues in the

field of Chinese art in America. The central question in this chapter is: how was the

display of Chinese art turned into a theatre for Loo’s crafting and performance of power

and identity? 400

The Grand and Grotesque

Loo was probably best known for his dealing in large-size stone sculptures in

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America. The Art Digest review of Loo’s 1940 Exhibition of Chinese Stone Sculptures

observed, “The show is outstanding mainly for its demonstration of ancient China’s

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“Old Bronzes Shown in Paris: Rare Statuette Bought by Rockefeller Exhibited at
Academy,” New York Times, June 20, 1926.
399 The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Letters (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-
Lettres) was a prestigious French learned society devoted to the study of antiquities,
languages, and cultures.
400
Display space in this dissertation refers not only to museums, commercial galleries,
but also to printed media, where Chinese objects and their images were circulated,
presented, and viewed.
401 Similar strategies were employed by the art dealer Dikran G. Kelekian, who displayed
the Lord Wimborne collection of sixteen Assyrian relief sculptures and two winged bulls
in the UPM before they were sold to John D. Rockefeller Jr. for $ 300,000. (Dikran G.
Kelekian to JDR Jr., February 3 and 8, 1928, folder 1360, Kelekian, 1913-1959, box 136,
OMR-RAC)