The China Collectors

January 12, 2015
Historians Meyer and Brysac (Tournament of Shadows) track the provenance of the Chinese collections housed in U.S. museums in this impressively researched survey of the adventurers who acquired these treasures. Focusing on a “curious, catlike herd” of colorful collectors, the authors open with the Bostonians who blazed a trail to China at the turn of the 20th Century, such as the eccentric heiress Isabella Stewart Gardner and the China rooms of her eponymous museum. She was guided by Harvard’s Charles Eliot Norton, who “preached the gospel of good taste,” and his acolytes. Museum goers may be familiar with Charles Lang Freer or the Rockefellers’ legendary collection of Ming pieces, but it is the lesser-known characters such as Harvard’s Ernest Fenellosa and shady art dealer C.T. Loo who introduce a frisson of intrigue. Evidence indicates that museum curators were complicit in funneling Chinese art to the U.S. until WWII. Despite recent measures taken by the Chinese government to protect its antiquities, the sheer volume of historic sites has made looting impossible to monitor. With ancient treasures such as the Elgin Marbles in the news, the issue of whether Chinese relics should be returned home is a timely one.

December 15, 2014
Two journalists explore the allure of Asian art for museum directors, collectors, archaeologists and others. World Policy Journal editor Meyer and documentary producer Brysac have collaborated before (Kingmakers: The Invention of the Middle East, 2008, etc.). Here, they shift their focus to the Far East to pursue a story they stumbled across in the archives at Harvard University. Their discovery of some key letters propelled them into a scholar's adventure-visits to libraries, museums, archives and relevant sites-and the result is a well-organized, if sometimes-dense, description of a passion shared by some fascinating figures throughout the past century. Some of the names are well-known (J. Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Alsop and Avery Brundage, for example), but others will be familiar only to art historians-e.g., Laurence Sickman, Denman Ross, Charles Lang Freer, George Crofts and Alan Priest. The authors float along on a fairly steady chronological stream, although they sometimes pause for some back story and context (we learn about the Manchus' sumptuary laws, for example). They also consider the moral and ethical aspects of the removing-art-from-China enterprise. (Lord Elgin emerges as a touchstone.) It's the old debate: Is it better to remove treasures from an unstable society and deny them to looters or leave them to face an uncertain, and probably dire, fate? Some of the authors' collectors embraced the latter position, but most did not. The authors also explore various varieties of art-bronze works, sculpture, porcelain and paintings. We learn some personal tidbits about some of the principals, as well. Sickman (of Harvard's Fogg Museum) collected first editions of Charles Dickens' works; Lucy Calhoun, wife of William James Calhoun (envoy to China), was the sister of Poetry Magazine's Harriet Monroe. Assiduous research underlies a text that will appeal principally to art historians and devotees of Asian art.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2015

Meyer and Brysac (coauthors, Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East; Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia) reunite to present a thorough survey of the key players responsible for shaping many of America's most comprehensive collections of Chinese art. Taking a thematic rather than chronological approach, the authors trace the history of Chinese art acquisition by outlining the major collecting activities of familiar philanthropists as well as those whose names are less well known to the general reader. Along with these character studies are descriptions of historical events and technological advances that allowed for the dramatic increase in accrual of ancient Chinese art by Western institutions. The narrative moves among historical eras and locations, revisiting certain events multiple times in order to maintain focus on particular individuals. Those interested in a discussion of the challenges of verifying provenance and navigating the regulations for collecting Chinese antiquities may be interested in another recently published volume, Jason Steuber's Collectors, Collections, and Collecting the Arts of China. VERDICT While the lack of a comprehensive bibliography may reduce the usefulness of the book for scholarly purposes, this title will appeal to readers with an interest in the history of Chinese art curation and the founding of American museum collections.--Rebecca Brody, Westfield State Univ., MA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2015
China possesses more than 350,000 historic sites, including tombs, palaces, and temples dating from 3500 BCE to 1911. Throughout the twentieth century, an interconnected network of American curators, museums, entrepreneurs, and adventurers succeeded in transferring vast quantities of this cultural wealth from East to West, building the world's greatest collection of Chinese art outside China itself. Journalists Meyer and Brysac offer a rich survey of the ways these artifacts were both acquired and exploited by such individuals as Charles Freer, Arthur Sackler, and John D. Rockefeller, collectors aided by political maneuverings of both the Chinese and American governments. The authors also delve into the little-known accounts of maverick curators who braved great peril to hunt down Asian antiquities, including Harvard archaeologist, and inspiration for Indiana Jones, Langdon Warner. Part true-life treasure hunt, part institutional critique, Meyer and Brysac's narrative raises significant questions about the line between looting and preservation, and American responsibilities toward the repatriation of objects, while also weaving a fascinating history of art as a focal point for complex global relations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)