Karl Ernest Meyer (1928–2019)

This was both fascinating and infuriating, not necessarily because of the the writing but the content. The China Collectors focuses on American collectors of Chinese art, which is sort of a niche thing to write about except it spans centuries from the early 1800s through today. There's echoes of the nineteenth century naturalists' attitude that art collectors seemed to share with the 'If we don't take this now to preserve, no one will see it in the future!' as an excuse to take priceless cave paintings and bas reliefs from walls of the Dunhuang caves. The modern new age trend towards the east as exotic mysticism is really only a historical rhyme of previous trends towards an Asian aesthetic. Bookending historical record are cases of how modern China is now a player in the art collecting world, full of both the newly rich looking to collect and a nationalist group looking to repatriate stolen goods.

I'm a tad bit torn because some of the looting is about as bad as the theft of the Elgin Marbles from Greece, but on the other hand having collections stateside means they're much more accessible to me in the future.… (meer)

Well written account of American efforts to collect the finest examples of Chinese art for private and museum collections. Interesting accounts of the explorations for these works as well as the earliest art dealers who worked to export the cultural legacy of China. Turmoil within China aided in the removal of some of the finest works and the political history of China is integrated well into this fascinating story. Altogether, this is a fascinating look at one segment in the growth of encyclopedic museums in the U.S.… (meer)