Page 36 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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opened in Beijing. The excavation of the Shang dynasty capital at Anyang began in 1928

under the support of the new Nationalist government in China.

Vis-à-vis current market conditions and interests in Chinese art, Loo’s business

flourished. He made a series of important acquisitions, exhibitions/sales, and

publications. According to Loo, he secured a group of Song murals in 1923 (Loo 1949,

Introduction). In 1924 he acquired an entire archaic jade collection unearthed in China

(Loo 1950, Preface). During 1928-1929 Loo obtained a large number of outstanding

excavated jades and bronzes (Loo 1950, Preface). Important sales Loo made include the

sixth-century Buddhist votive stele (MFA 23.120) and the painted Han tiles to the MFA

(25.110-3, 25.190). Under his patronage a series of important catalogues by leading

experts were published, including Tch’ou Tö-yi and Paul Pelliot’s Bronzes antiques de la

Chine appartenant à C. T. Loo et cie (1924), Berthold Laufer’s T'ang, Sung and Yüan

Paintings Belonging to Various Chinese Collectors (1924), Paul Pelliot’s Jades

Archaiques de Chine: apartemant a M.C. T. Loo. (1925), and Michael I. Rostovtzeff’s

Inlaid Bronzes of the Han Dynasty in the Collection of C. T. Loo (1927). Loo’s thriving

business during this period was signaled by the construction of his impressive new

gallery in Paris on the rue de Courcelles during 1926-8 (Fig.3).

The efflorescence of Chinese art came to a stop in 1929 when the stock market crashed

in U.S. and the depression that followed affected the world economy and international art

trade. Compared to 1926, the volume of China’s antique export trade with the U.S. in

Shanghai dropped almost by half in 1931 (table 1, Futian 2005, 77).