Page 48 - C.T. Loo A paper about his impact and activities in the Chinese art Market

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was honored by the American press as Chinese “archeologist”. In the 1920s, John E.

Lodge, director of the Freer Gallery of Art commented on Loo’s quick response to new

archeological findings, “Loo and others, for example, are brimming with information

about the Hsin-ch’eng finds, ---the disposition that has been made of them, or that may

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later be made of them, or the possibility of getting some of them by purchase…”

According to Loo, he secured the entire collection of the excavated archaic jades from

two tombs, one near Chang-the fu, the other near Loyang in 1924 (Loo 1950, Preface). In

the late 1930s and the 1940s, a large group of ancient bronzes and jades that Loo handled

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were reportedly unearthed in An-yang and Jincun.

In order to scout and obtain first-rate objects, Loo established an elaborate network in

China, consisting of staff in his branch offices in Shanghai and Peking (Beijing), and

local agents, whom he called “friends” or “buyers” (Tao 2003a,b). Paintings in the 1916

Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient and Genuine Chinese Paintings, for example, were

assembled, researched, and published by F.S. Kwen, manager of the Shanghai office of

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Loo’s business. In China, Loo was in partnership with some of the top art dealers who

38 New York Times, June 20, 1926.
39 Hsin-ch’eng (Xinzheng) was an archaeological site in Henan. J.E. Lodge and C.W.
Bishop, March 31, 1924, F/S Field Expedition Records, 1914, 1923-42, Box 7 of 22, SI.
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Purchases from C. T. Loo, G. L. Winthrop account book,1939-1942, HUAMA.
Anyang and Jincun were important archaeological sites in Henan.
41 Loo ingeniously used his partners in China to negotiate with Charles L. Freer in the
transaction of a painting collection in 1916. Loo wrote to Freer, referring to his partners
in Shanghai as “friends”, “ Our friends wired me twice saying that they hope you will
excuse them for not being able to accept your kind offer: it is beyond their means to do
so. They have decided a special price only for you of the whole collection for 60000.” (C.
T. Loo to C.L. Freer, October 23, 1916, CLFP-FGA)