Page 122 - Bonhams asian Art Knightsbridge May 2018

PROPERTY FROM THE MARCHESE AND MARCHESA
TALIANI DE MARCHIO COLLECTION OF CHINESE ART
(LOTS 324-333)

Marchese Taliani was a distinguished Italian diplomat who lived Toscana (1894 - 1986), were arrested and interned by the
through major historical upheavals of the first half of the 20th Japanese in a concentration camp near Shanghai, where
century, events whose impact affects all to this day. His first they remained for two years until the end of the war. After the
diplomatic appointment was to Berlin in 1912; followed by end of hostilities, the new government of Alcide De Gasperi
Constantinople in 1913, where during the First World War he reconfirmed him as Ambassador to China until 1946.
negotiated an agreement for the protection Italian citizens and
interests in the (soon to demise) Ottoman Empire. From 1916 Many of the purchase invoices survive, providing an important
to 1919 he served in St Petersburg, and under the privilege of documentation of Chinese art dealers active in Shanghai and
diplomatic immunity was in a unique position to observe and Beijing between 1938 and 1946. The majority of the invoices
chronicle first-hand the October Revolution, its day by day are dated to between December 1938 and July 1943, with
development , the subsequent fall of Tsarist Russia and the a significant gap until April 1946, explained by Marchese
establishment of the Soviet Republic; from 1919 he served in Taliani and his wife’s internment by the Japanese. The long
Rome as Secretary of State for the Minister of Foreign Affairs; list of dealers demonstrates the vibrant Chinese art market in
with later assignments to London (1921 - 1923) and again Shanghai and Beijing in the late 1930s and early 1940s; this
to Constantinople (1924 – 1928), this time as the Republic list includes the following:
of Turkey; from 1929 - 1930 he was in Rome as Head of
Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in 1932 he was In Shanghai - K. D. Lu, Yee Chun Chang, C. K. Chou,
appointed Italian Ambassador to the Netherlands; in 1938 he Strehlneek’s Gallery of Chinese Art, The Midoh Co., Tung Koo
was appointed Ambassador to China, where he remained until Tsar Chinese Curios & Arts Co., Philip Chu, Zui Wha Curios &
1946; and his last diplomatic appointment was in 1951 as Co., T. Y. King & Co., King Koo Chai, Tai Loong & Co., Tin Dao
Ambassador to Spain until 1952. Shan Fang, Y. L. Hong, Chu Tsun Tsai, The China Curios Co.,
Hsueh Ken Chai, Zung Chang Ziang Co., The Little Pagoda, M.
Sent to China in 1938 as Ambassador to the National Chiang L. Kwauh, Hoggard – Sigler, and Foo Yuen Tsai.
Kai-shek Government in Nanjing , he became an acute -
and far from humourless, despite the hardships of everyday In Beijing - J. Plaut, Jung Hsing Chai, Mathias Komor, Tung Ku
life - front line eye-witness of the Second Sino-Japanese Chai Curio and Picture Store, Yi Pao Chai Jade Store, Jung
War, during which the Japanese forces captured the capital Hsing Chai, Wan E. Cheng, Yung Pao Chia Jade Store, Mario
and attacked Shanghai. When Mussolini recognised Wang Prodan, and Tung Yi & Co.
Jingwei’s Japanese puppet government, Taliani presented his
credentials to him. On 8 September 1943, having refused to Marchese Taliani published three books: Pietrogrado 1917,
swear allegiance to the Italian Social Republic (Republic of Milan, 1935; È Morto in Cina, Milan, 1949; and Dopoguerra a
Salò), he and his wife, the Archduchess Margaretha d’Austria Shanghai, Milan, 1958.

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