“$1m” Ai Weiwei Vase Smashed in Miami Protest
At the Miami New Times, Michael E. Miller reports the destruction of a vase in an Ai Weiwei...
antiquities
Reactionaries? Make That ‘Collectors’
From the New York Times: Some four decades after the Cultural Revolution, when many of the country’s centuries-old treasures were defaced or destroyed as a result of Mao’s command to eradicate “the four olds” — old ideas, old...
Beijing Angry at Auction of Relics
Chinese officials are angry over the proposed sale of two bronze animal heads that were taken from the zodiac-themed fountain of the Old Summer Palace when it was looted by British and French troupes during the Second Opium War...
Chinese Vow to Halt Sale of Emperor’s Bronze – David Eimer
From Telegraph.co.uk: The proposed sale of a rare bronze statue, looted from Beijing by British and French soldiers in 1860, has run into powerful opposition from China, where there is rising anger over the millions of Chinese antiquities held by foreign museums and collectors. The beautifully preserved bronze horse head, which originally adorned the summer […]
Looted Chinese Plunder to Go Under the Hammer – James Pomfret
Sotheby’s has announced a fall sale of Chinese art which includes a bronze sculpture looted from the Yuanmingyuan by French and British troops. From Reuters: A rare bronze horse’s head plundered by British and French troops from Beijing’s old Summer Palace will be put on sale next month in an auction likely to fetch $10-million […]
China: The New Contemporary-Art Frontier – New York Times (Updated)
Three articles in the New York Times about Chinese art and the art market, in relation to the Asia Week now in New York: Carol Vogel writes about the market for Chinese contemporary art (link): Sitting in the back row among a crowd of 400 people at Sotheby’s York Avenue salesroom yesterday morning, a Singapore […]
China and Italy team up to fight illicit trade – Lucian Harris
From the Art Newspaper (link): China and Italy have signed a treaty aimed at preventing the looting and illicit export of antiquities. The agreement was signed in Beijing by Shan Jixiang director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Italian Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione to mark the launch of the year of Italy in […]
Buying Back China’s Lost Art Treasures – Anthony Kuhn
From National Public Radio (link): Chinese collectors and corporations are using their new wealth to buy back some of the thousands of China’s art treasures that have been lost overseas, plundered in war and stolen by tomb robbers. One company has made this its specialty: the Poly Corporation, which started as an arms trading branch […]
Art Review | ‘Secular and Sacred’ – Holland Cotter
From the New York Times: Office clerks and society swells rub shoulders with scholars lost in worlds of their own. Actors and priests add spice to the mix, along with wild-eyed types who seem to be straight from the New York streets. And then there are the real oddballs, folks with halos and banners and […]
The Art Of Power – Ann Morrison
From Time Europe: Given the western fascination with all things Chinese ” from feng shui to fusion food, from Mandarin collars to the mainland economy ” it is hardly surprising that London’s Royal Academy would mount an exhibition devoted to its art. All the riches of Chinese civilization are on display at the sumptuous “China: […]
Antoaneta Bezlova: For the love of art, help China
From Asia Times: China is not the first country to ask the US to impose import restrictions on antiquities. The controversy surrounding China’s request stems from the fact that the list of items presented to US customs authorities as imports to be prohibited is far more sweeping than current restrictions on export of cultural items […]
Souren Melikian: Diverse cultures (and sales) at Asian art event
From the IHT: If proof were needed that the art market and the broader economy do not function under the same rules, it was spectacularly provided during New York Asia Week, which began on March 28 and lingered on into April. China and India may vie with one another as the economic giants of the […]
Xinhua: China to reclaim looted, stolen relics
From Xinhua: Cultural relic experts and NGOs will go abroad to reclaim China’s national treasures. The China Cultural Relics Recovery Program, funded by the China Foundation for the Development of Folklore Culture, announced a large-scale program Monday to claim back Chinese cultural relics scattered around the world. The group said it would mainly look for […]
China’s Request: Is the US Government on the Verge of Shutting Down the Market in Chinese Antiquities?
From Orientations Magazine: The mood was tense as a group of influential experts in the field of Chinese art and archaeology assembled in a dreary annex of the State Department on a wintry day in Washington, DC. They had come to the capital to participate in a public hearing of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee […]
U.S. considers Chinese art import limit
From the IHT: Chinese officials have asked the United States to restrict imports of a wide range of artifacts from the prehistoric period through the early 20th century because they believe that demand in the United States for Chinese antiquities has helped fuel a sharp increase in looting of archaeological sites and even thefts from […]
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