Page 104 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

Marchesa and Marchese Taliani de Marchio examining objects

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

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