Page 33 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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The First Boom: 1923-1929

In the 1920s, peace resumed and the international art trade gradually recovered from

the damaging effect of the war. By 1924, the volume of art importation in America

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reached the highest point since the beginning of the war. In 1919, the volume of the
antique export trade with the U.S. began to increase in the port of Shanghai in 1919. In

1924 the volume of China’s antique export trade with the U.S. reached its highest point

since 1916. In 1926 and 1927 the export trade volume reached a record high (Table 1,

Futian 2005, 77). In the mid-1920s, the price of top-quality Chinese antiquities in

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America became comparable to that of the European Old Masters’ works. In Europe,
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the Chinese art business also flourished in the mid-1920s.

The surge of interest in Chinese art, especially pieces of early periods, was manifested

not only in the booming market, but also in the museum world in America. In 1923 the

Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the first national gallery devoted to Asian art,

opened to the public. American institutions conducted a series of field expeditions to

China. In the 1920s Langdon Warner from the Fogg Museum (Mowry 1996) and Carl

Whiting Bishop from the Free Gallery organized expeditions to China. By the end of the

1920s museums in America, including the MFA, the Met, the FGA, Cleveland Art

Museum, Field Museum, Honolulu Academy of Art, the UPM, the Rhode Island School

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“Increased Imports of Art Each Year,” Art News, November 8, 1924, 5.
22 Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased from Yamanaka & Co. two Chinese gilt
bronzes (Met 38.158.1a-n, 38.158.2 a-g), for $175,000 in January 1925. In May, 1925
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. acquired from Duveen Brothers, Inc. Botticelli’s painting,
Virgin with Child and St. John, for $180,000 (Memo of special purchases, March 13,
1926, folder 1446, Yamanaka 1909- 1940, box 144, OMR-RAC).
23 C. T. Loo to L.E. Rowe, March 10, 1924, folder: C. T. Loo & Co. 1920-1944, RISDA.