Shirley M. Mueller
At the recent March 2015 auctions during Asian Week in New York City, I was feeling very lonely. My usual gang was gone. The attendees were virtually all Chinese.
Grey Limestone Figure of a Standing Bodhisattva, China, Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Lot 758, Sale 11421. Christie’s, Rockefeller Center, NYC. March 20, 2015
Provenance C.T. Loo and Co. New York, 1941.
The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New York before 1984.
New York City auction houses were humming during Asia Week in mid-March. The buzz, however, was not due to English being spoken as in the past. It was Mandarin and Cantonese that was producing the background din. The sale of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth engendered a mini temporary exodus from China and Taiwan to Manhattan.
The main floor of Christie’s Rockefeller Center, NYC where the preview of the March 2015 Ellsworth sale began.
Ellsworth was arguably the most prominent dealer of all things Chinese and Asian in the middle decades of the 20th century. He died in August 2014 at age 85. The remaining items from his 22-room home on Fifth Avenue in NYC were auctioned by Christie’s. The Chinese and Asian artifacts from other prominent collectors such as Julia and John Curtis were also being offered simultaneously. Sotheby’s, Bonham’s and Doyle’s, also auction houses in NYC, were on the bandwagon with their own Asian sales. This provided an opportunity for mainland Chinese and Taiwanese to come to the city and bring back what had been taken from their homeland more than 60 years earlier.
Doyle’s Auction in NYC about 11:30 AM 3 13 15. As far as the eye could see, all attendees at the auction preview were Chinese. I saw only one Caucasian face in roughly every 50 or 100.
For example, the gray limestone figure in the first illustration was purchased originally from C.T. Loo in 1941 in NYC. Mr. Loo obtained this and objects like it in war-torn China and sold them to eager Americans and others who coveted objects from the East. Think of the Rockefellers and their collection at the Asia Society.
For sure, no one will be buying what the Asia Society Collection now owns. But, the possessions of deceased Ellsworth, a dealer, are fair play.