The Archaeology of Beijing: Treasures of an Ancient Capital

by Zhao Chao, Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Although Beijing has transformed into a modern metropolis, it was one of the centres of civilization in ancient China. The author discusses some of the significant archaeological discoveries in the Beijing region from the Western Zhou to the Ming periods and introduces key pieces that have become symbolic of the city's rich history.

Jue with stand From Dingling, Changping district, Beijing Ming period, before 1424 Jue: jade; stand: gold and precious stones Overall height 14.5 cm Dingling Mausoleum Museum

by Nancy Berliner, Curator of Chinese Art at the Peabody Essex Museum and a specialist in Chinese architecture and furniture. She has been a consultant to the WMF on the interpretation and presentation of Juanqinzhai, assisting in considering how the restored space will appear and how it will be interpreted for visitors.

Juanqinzhai (‘The Studio of Fatigue after an Assiduous Reign’ or ‘The Lodge of Retirement’) in the Ningshougong (‘The Palace of Tranquility and Longevity’) precinct of the Forbidden City was envisioned by Qianlong emperor as a place for his retirement. The author examines the origin and history of Ningshougong and gives a detailed description of its layout. There is a discussion between art historians from the Palace Museum and Tsinghua University and World Monuments Fund executives regarding the restoration of Juanqinzhai and its extraordinary trompe l’oeil ceiling and wall murals. Their combined efforts have brought new insights into the design and construction of Juanqinzhai and are a valuable inspiration for both future scholars and the visiting public.

Section of the mural on the north wall, post-restoration

Section of the ceiling painting, post-restoration

by Raymond Lum, Librarian for Western Languages and curator of historic photographs in the Harvard-Yenching Library, and Asian Bibliographer in Widener Library, Harvard University.

Hedda Morrison lived in Beijing from 1933 to 1946, first as the manager of Hartung’s Photo Shop and then as a freelance photographer. The author gives an account of how Hedda Morrison came to document the life of a Beijing that exists today almost solely through her photographs. She focused on capturing people going about their daily lives, eating, working, resting, watching others and praying. She rarely photographed Westerners and did not focus on the exotic. Her interests were the people and the natural and built environment that surrounded her.

Ice skating HM06.2839

Boatman outside Qihuamen HM04.6023

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, a registered Chinese NGO that assists local communities in preserving tangible and intangible local culture.

Today, courtyard houses are one of the few historical features left in Beijing and their acquisition by foreigners was legalized in 2004. As such, an increasing number of Westerners have purchased and restored these historical homes. This discussion reveals how Barbara Munch, a German architect who taught at Beijing University, acquired such a house and the obstacles she overcame in its restoration.

Courytard and gate, post-renovation

Local communities throughout China are increasingly empowered to help stay the endless destruction of their heritage in the name of modern development. He Shuzhong heads the Cultural Heritage Watch, which had set up China’s first website dedicated to heritage protection. This is a discussion about the changing views of cultural heritage protection in Beijing and about the role played by his organization and its volunteers in educating the public and promoting awareness about the value of their architectural heritage.

He Shuzhong at the Great Wall (Photography by Matthew Hu Xinyu

by Yao An, Vice-Director of the Capital Museum.

This article is an introduction of the landmark new Capital Museum (Shoudu Bowuguan) for the municipality of Beijing and discusses the role of a city museum, how it represents the city’s history and how the exhibits reflect particular characteristics of 'Beijing' life.

Boju li Early Western Zhou period (mid-11th to mid-10th century BCE) Bronze Height 33 cm Capital Museum, Beijing

by Thomas J. Campanella, a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His latest book is The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World (Princeton, 2008).

According to the author no capital in recent memory has invested more time, money and effort negotiating its global image in advance of the Olympics. He highlights the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, CCTV Tower and the Grand National Theatre in his discussion on the city’s metamorphosis from Maoist isolation to world-city glamour.

The `Bird's Nest' and the National Aquatics Centre (the `Water Cube') straddle Albert Speer Jr's central axis (Photograph courtesy of PTW+ARUP+CSCEC)

by Julie Segraves, Executive Director of the Asian Art Coordinating Council.

The Chinese contemporary art scene has become a global force with an increasing number of record auction results for its artists and China becoming the world’s third largest art market. The author provides a very useful guide to the various art complexes that have opened in Beijing to showcase contemporary Chinese art.

Hans van Dijk with Liu Xiaodong in the artist's studio

Pascale Geulleaume and Frank Uytterhaegen

Myriam and Guy Ullens By Liu Xiaodong (b. 1963), 2005 Oil on canvas Each side 200 cm `Our Future: The Guy and Myriam Ullens Collection' (17 July-12 October) Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

A programme Khyentse Visitors has been established jointly by the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (www.ocbs.org) and friends of Bhutanese lama Dzongsar J. Khyentse Rinpoche. Leading practitioners from all Buddhist traditions around the world will be invited to a regular series of talks, lectures and seminars. The initial pledged endowment is £250,000, with an eventual goal of £1 million. Anyone interested in making a donation should contact Geoffrey Bamford, Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, at Geoffrey.Bamford@ocbs.org, or send money directly to: Royal Bank of Scotland/Account name: Khyentse Visitorship of Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and Dzongsar J. Khyentse Rinpoche/Account number: 10154925/Sort code: 16-10-15/IBAN number: GB89RBOS16101510154925/Swift code: RBOSGB2L.
In late October 2006, Jan Stuart moved from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC to the British Museum to become Keeper of Asia. Under her leadership, there have recently been two new appointments. Clarissa von Spee will be responsible for Chinese paintings, calligraphy and prints. Anouska Komlosy will be curator of the large Asian ethnographic collections and will devote special attention to Southeast Asia. As of January this year, the museum has formed a ten-year partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation who will sponsor the permanent galleries of Japanese culture. The recently renovated Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries features objects from antiquity up until the present day, including contemporary ceramics and manga. In addition, upcoming exhibitions such as `The Dynamics of Diversity: Cultural Change in the Eastern Himalayas' opens in October. The Chinese curatorial team is also preparing the display the
Percival David Foundation collection of Chinese ceramics in the new Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies for early 2009.
Christie's appointed Qi Hong-er as its China President who will be based in Beijing and will lead the development of Christie's business in China, reinforcing client and government relations, running the Beijing as well as Shanghai offices and directing Christie's marketing, PR and online strategy in China. She will also oversee Christie's continued support to Forever.

From left: Clarissa von Spee, Jan Stuart and Anouska Komlosy in the Great Court of the British Museum

Qi Hong-er

by Margaret Tao

The International Asian Art Fair was held a week earlier than usual and at a new and smaller venue - 583 Park Avenue. Among the Japanese art dealers, Hiroshi Yanagi sold six pieces on the first day, including an important Jomon pot from 5000 BCE. Several museums bought from Erik Thomsen, including The Art Institute of Chicago, which acquired an Edo period 19th century Korakuen black tea bowl attributed to Tokugawa Harutoshi. Flying Cranes were pleased with their many sales of metalwork, cloisonné porcelain and baskets to an international group of private collectors, while Joan B. Mirviss, noted that the contemporary Japanese ceramics, especially those of Kishi Eiko, were in demand.
In the Chinese art field, Kaikodo sold a major painting in ink and colour on paper, Earthscape, by San Francisco-based Chinese contemporary artist Li Huayi. Newcomer Christian Deydier sold two major pieces, including a Tang dynasty sancai-glazed ewer with blue, which went on opening night. There was much speculation on the future location and composition of the fair, but organizer Anna Haughton insisted that despite the changes this year it had been a success, with strong attendance and the majority of the dealers satisfied.

Close to thirty dealers had independent exhibitions around town and most dealers reported that the uncertain economy, the weakness of the dollar and the earlier date all contributed to a lower attendance and correspondingly less business. Some dealers like James Lally had very successful exhibitions that were largely sold out by the time they opened, but this was rare. Eskenazi's experience was probably more typical. More than half of the twenty works in his show, among them three Han dynasty gilt-bronze bear-form supports and several Buddhist sculptures, as well as a number of pieces not included, sold to American, European and East Asian collectors, but the most expensive pieces did not find buyers. Several of Gisèle Croës’ top bronzes went, including the tall gilt-bronze bird-form stand or incense burner from the late Warring States or Western Han period and a large Western Han bronze hu with an inlaid design of dragons and clouds in gold and silver, as did two unusual Northern Qi ceramics. Rossi & Rossi sold nine of the fifteen Tantric carpets from a Swiss collection (a British collector bought eight) as well as two important ritual pieces, one from Tibet and one from Mongolia. MD Flacks benefited from the paucity of top-quality furniture on the market, with several pieces being snapped up by Americans, and they also sold some scholar's objects. Their highlight - a pair of huanghuali tapered cabinets - went to an American collector for around US$1 million. Americans also bought several masterpieces from John Eskenazi, including a Khmer pre-Angkor, mid-7th/early 8th century limestone figure, probably of Harihara and one of less than ten extant Prasat Andet-style sculptures, for a seven-figure price. Kumja Kang of Kang Collection was pleased that the works of contemporary Korean artist Kang Ik-Joong all sold, as well as numerous other examples of classical Korean art.

Stand or incense burner China, Warring States (475-221 BCE)/ Western Han period (206 BCE-CE 8) Gilt bronze with silver inlay Height 78 cm Gisèle Croës

A more streamlined group of 72 dealers such as S. Marchant & Son, Robert Hall, Knapton Rasti, Nicholas Grindley, Jan van Beers, Imperial Oriental Art and Cédric Curien showed at the Arts of Pacific Asia Show (APA) from 21-24 March. Most plan to return next year since they were encouraged by the show's look and the number of collectors who attended. Stuart Marchant was quite happy, having sold to European as well as Chinese clients, one of whom bought a large Kangxi yellow-glazed bowl. Nicholas Grindley sold a number of Qing scholar's objects on opening night, including a bamboo wrist rest, a bamboo brush with ivory caps and a green Laoshan serpentine rock on a stand from Shandong province. Knapton Rasti’s sales were at the higher end and consisted primarily of jades and works of art, bought by Chinese from the mainland and Hong Kong as well as Americans and Europeans. Mostafa Hasan of Imperial Oriental Art felt that the arrival of big-name dealers had encouraged more collectors to come, and that this will be the show for Asian art in New York in the future. Peter Rosenberg of Vallin Galleries sold a small 18th century hongmu cabinet with carved dragons among clouds and incised gilt hinges to a Chinese buyer and a carved bamboo mountain to a European dealer.
Kapoor Galleries sold an important Indian miniature, among other pieces. Other dealers in the Himalayan and Southeast Asian field, including Robert Bigler, Vicki Shiba and Arnold Lieberman thought that perhaps collectors had already spent their budgets at the auctions. Leiko Coyle also described her sales as being in the US$5,000 to US$15,000 range and not as good as at other venues recently.
Chinalai Tribal Antiques had a wonderful show, selling to the American Museum of Natural History as well as private museums. Among the pieces they parted with were a collection of Li embroidered head cloths from Hainan, circa 1900, and a large Yi minority ceremonial robe from Yunnan. Robyn Buntin also did very well. Sixty per cent of his sales were to Chinese buyers, and he sold Japanese material as well. The Jade Dragon had a strong first three days, with most of their New York area clients coming in and buying mainly jade and porcelain, which also attracted Chinese buyers. The future of the APA looks bright, but holiday weekends must be avoided!

by Margaret Tao

Sotheby's `Contemporary Art Asia' on 17 March suffered from the turmoil in the financial markets. The total was US$23,210,525 for the 291 lots offered (80.1 per cent sold by lot and 81.8 per cent by value), with most works selling for prices within or below estimate and none of the manic bidding of previous sales. The only work to bring more than US$1 million was Mask Series No. 11 by established artist Zeng Fanzhi; it was bought by a European on the telephone for US$1.217 million (lot 11; estimate US$0.8/1 million). The most expensive of Zhang Xiaogang's and Cai Guo-Qiang's works were unsold, though Cai's 2003 piece Escalator: Explosion Project for Centre Pompidou (two panels) was reportedly sold after the sale (lot 56; estimate US$500/700,000). A record was however set for a Chinese ink painting, Autumn Mountains (2007) by Li Huayi, which went for US$451,000 (lot 161; estimate US$350/450,000) - evidence of the growing interest in traditional-style works. Competition was strong for lower-priced pieces in mixed media, including photographs, which often surpassed the estimates.

Dainichi Nyorai Japan, Kamakura period, 1190s, attributed to Unkei (d. 1223) Wood Height 66.1 cm Christie's `Japanese and Korean Art' sale, New York, 18 March 2008, lot 200 Price: US$14.377 million (estimate US$1.5/2 million)

The `Japanese and Korean Art' sale at Christie's on 18 March included a Kamakura period (1190s) wood sculpture of the Buddha Dainichi Nyorai attributed to the famous sculptor Unkei (d. 1223), the successful sale of which resulted in a total of US$20,854,813 for the 462 lots offered (70 per cent sold by lot and 94 per cent by value), the highest value sale in the Japanese art category. The consignor, a Japanese collector of Buddhist art, had found the Buddha in a small country antique shop, and having noticed how light it was and guessed it was probably hollow, took it to the Tokyo National Museum for study. X-rays taken there revealed that it contained three Buddhist dedicatory objects-a wood plaque with a pagoda-shaped finial, a crystal ball and a crystal pagoda - making it all the rarer and more valuable. The Bunkacho (Japanese Department of Cultural Properties) failed to raise the funds to buy it, however, therefore enabling its sale at Christie's. Ten bidders participated up to US$3 million, and six, both private collectors and museums, remained until US$7 million. The figure eventually sold to the department store Mitsukoshi Co. Ltd, acting on behalf of Shinnyo-en, one of the largest Buddhist groups in Japan, for US$14.377 million, a record both for Japanese art sold at public auction anywhere and for an Asian work of art in New York (lot 200; estimate US$1.5/2 million). Shinnyo-en is reportedly in discussion with the Tokyo museum about placing the Dainichi Nyorai on public view there for five years while their own museum is being constructed. Shinnyo-en's founder, Ito Shinjo, is a Buddhist sculptor himself, and his own work was on view at the Milk Gallery in New York's Chelsea in March as well.

Bonhams' single-session inaugural sale of `Fine Japanese Works of Art' on 19 March was quite a success. The total for the 245 lots was US$546,000, with 85 per cent sold by lot and 83 per cent by value, to clients both on the telephone and in the room. Among the 20th century prints, netsuke, sword fittings, ivories and metalwork on offer-although prints by Hiroshi Yoshida sold the most consistently - it was metalwork that brought the highest prices. A Meiji period patinated bronze jardinière with gold accents from the workshop of Miyao Eisuke of Yokohama and inscribed `Miyao' proved the most expensive at US$42,000 (lot 5241; estimate US$40/50,000).

Jardinière Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912), inscribed `Miyao' Bronze Height 31.5 cm Bonhams' `Fine Japanese Works of Art' sale, New York, 19 March 2008, lot 5241 Price: US$42,000 (estimate US$40/50,000)

Some very good prices were achieved in the `Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art' auction at Sotheby's on 18 March, but they were overshadowed by the complete lack of interest in the group of archaic bronzes from a Taiwan collection projected to be the stars of the sale. The unprecedentedly high estimates proved a sticking point, and the total was thus much lower than anticipated at US$11,091,263 (63.6 per cent sold by lot and 53.1 per cent by value). The recent re-dating of purple-splashed Jun ware flower vessels from the Northern Song (12th century) to the early Ming dynasty (14th/15th century) did not prevent a narcissus bowl (lot 97; estimate US$400/500,000) from fetching the top price, US$869,800, considerably more than the HK$1.23 million it brought on 25 October 1993 at Christie's, Hong Kong (lot 704; estimate HK$350/450,000). This time, it was purchased by an Asian buyer on the telephone.

Bowl China, early Ming period, 14th/15th century Jun ware Diameter 19.7 cm Sotheby's `Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art' sale, New York, 18 March 2008, lot 97 Price: US$869,800 (estimate US$400/500,000)

`Doyle's' sale `The Regal Collection and Asian Works of Art' on 18 March featured the collection of 18th and 19th century Chinese porcelain assembled by Arthur Regal, his wife Florence and their son Vernon R. Regal of Pennsylvania. The sale total, US$1,700,700 for the 369 lots offered, with 82 per cent sold by lot and 93 per cent by value, exceeded expectations. A Hong Kong buyer in the room bought the cover lot, a Qianlong mark and period moulded famille-rose `boys' vase - a decorative example of a popular type – for US$361,000 (lot 2100; estimate US$100/150,000).

The total for Christie's the three sales on 19 March, US$26,299,588, was the highest ever for Chinese works of art in New York. `The Imperial Wardrobe', comprising Linda Wrigglesworth's collection of Chinese costumes and textiles did not attract the anticipated frenzied bidding, with only one of the top-valued robes finding a buyer - the Yongzheng/Qianlong period imperial noblewoman's kesi fur-lined winter surcoat which went to an Asian collector for US$241,000 (lot 83; estimate US$250/350,000).
The total for the 114 bottles in `The Meriem Collection: Important Chinese Snuff Bottles, Part II', assembled by Vancouver philanthropist Mary Margaret Young, was US$4,281,700, with 100 per cent sold (Part I was held in September 2007). The top lot, a rare Qianlong imperial Beijing enamel `European subject' faceted bottle from the Palace Workshops, was bought by an Asian collector for US$825,000, a record price for a snuff bottle (lot 308; estimate US$250/300,000). Young had purchased it on 3 December 1992 in the same rooms for US$220,000 (lot 428; estimate US$50/70,000). The important bottles were particularly sought after and the majority fetched prices above the estimates, indicating the growing strength and depth of this market internationally.

The oldest and best-known contemporary Indian artist, Maqbool Fida Husain, was the star of Sotheby's `Indian Art' auction on 19 March. An Indian dealer bought his 1953 depiction of a village puppeteer using sticks to control a dancing couple for the top price, US$409,000 (lot 13; estimate US$200/300,000). The total of US$5,106,874 for the 88 lots offered, with 73 per cent selling by lot and 78.8 per cent by value, reflected the solid but unspectacular results achieved by this select group of paintings with good provenance.
The `Indian and Southeast Asian Works of Art' sale included a fine selection of Indian miniatures from two private collections, almost all of which sold well above their lower estimates. This market has escalated greatly owing to the lack of supply of good examples from private sources, and a Bikaner School illustration from the Bhagavata Purana of the gopis on the banks of the Yamuna river, circa 1690-1700, brought US$193,000 (lot 223; estimate US$20/30,000). It was sculpture that dominated, however, with American private collectors the main buyers for the group of Tibetan gilt bronzes from a European collection that formed the core of the sale. The cover lot and highlight, a circa 15th century gilt-copper image of the Buddha in vajrasana, sold on the reserve for US$1.385 million (lot 308; estimate US$1.5/2.5 million). The US$7,026,751 fetched by the 152 lots offered, with 69.7 per cent sold by lot and 82.4 per cent by value, was proof of the strong prices achieved.

It was however at Christie's on 20 and 21 March that prices rose to new heights in this field. A minor demonstration on the street outside protesting Husain's depiction of Hindu gods in the nude did not prevent his work being most in demand here too in the `South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art' sale. One of his most important paintings, Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12, which was painted in 1971-72 for the Sao Paolo Biennial as part of a series of works of the Hindu epic Mahabharata and later acquired by Chester and Davida Herwitz, was hotly contested by two telephone bidders and fetched US$1.609 million - a record for a contemporary Indian painting (lot 57; estimate US$600/800,000). A Japanese collector had paid US$52,500 when the Herwitzes sold it at Sotheby's, New York on 5 December 2000, an indication of the amazing changes in the field in the last eight years (lot 127; estimate US$40/60,000). A second work broke through the US$1 million mark: Ram Kumar's early figurative work Vagabond (1956), which was purchased by an Asian collector on the telephone for US$1.161 million (lot 23; estimate US$400/600,000), setting a record for the artist. The 125 lots offered in this sale brought the very high total of US$10,974,600, with 89 per cent sold by lot and 87 per cent by value.

Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12 By Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915), 1971-72 Diptych, oil on canvas Height 189.9 cm, width 273.7 cm Christie's South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art' sale, New York, 20 March 2008, lot 57 Price: US$1.609 million (estimate US$600/800,000)

`The Scholar's Vision: The Pal Family Collection' was very well received. The interesting selection of pieces, spanning a large range of Gandharan, Indian and Himalayan art, had been assembled by Pratapaditya Pal, formerly Senior Curator of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and adviser to pre-eminent collectors in the field. `The Ideal Image: Eight Masterpieces of Indian and Southeast Asian Art' and Indian and Southeast Asian Art' sales attracted a huge crowd and drew the week to a triumphant close. The highest total for a series of Indian and Southeast Asian art auctions, US$21,939,488, was achieved for the three sales of 519 lots (63 per cent sold by lot and 98 per cent by value). The star piece overall, a superb Gupta period sandstone sculpture of a standing Buddha from Sarnath, circa 475, which had been in a European private collection since 1949, was the nucleus of the `Eight Masterpieces' sale and brought the first of several record prices, US$4.969 million (lot 502; estimate US$600/800,000). The purchaser took the opportunity to create an amazing collection by acquiring three more of the masterpieces (lots 503, 506 and 508), with the price of US$2.113 million for the Khmer Baphuon style, 11th century large sandstone figure of Uma from the Alice M. Kaplan Collection, acquired at Spink & Son in 1968, doubling the previous record for a Khmer sculpture (lot 508; estimate US$1/1.5 million). Clients on the telephone competed vigorously for all the lots in the `Masterpieces' sale, resulting in record prices for Indian sculpture, Indian painting, Khmer sculpture and Tibetan painting. An Indian collector in the room bought Musicians Playing a Raga for Balwant Dev Singh during the Rainy Season by Nainsukh of Guler, from Jasrota, circa 1745-50, paying the record price for an Indian painting of US$2.225 million (lot 507; estimate US$150/250,000).

Buddha India, Gupta period, c. 475 Sandstone Height 108 cm Christie's `The Ideal Image: Eight Masterpieces of Indian and Southeast Asian Art' sale, New York, 21 March 2008, lot 502 Price: US$4.969 million (estimate US$600/800,000)

At Sotheby's `Fine Chinese Paintings' on 8 April a decent result of HK$148,511,250 showed a stable and mature market (82.6 per cent of the 265 lots sold; 88.1 per cent by value). The sale's top lot, Cross-island Highway, Taiwan, a splashed-colour landscape by Zhang Daqian, was picked up by an Asian collector for HK$8,391,500 (lot 161; estimate HK$4/6 million). Signature works by established artists continue to hold strong, with paintings previously held in private collections garnering the most interest.
`Contemporary Chinese Art (Parts I & II)' on 9 April reached a combined sale total of HK$263,690,750 for 184 lots offered (85.6 per cent sold by value; 86.41 per cent by lot). Although there seemed to be more fervent bidding during Part II of the sale, six of the top ten lots were by 20th century masters in Part I. The top lot (858), The Forbidden City by Taiwanese artist Guo Bochuan, dated the 35th year of the Republic of China (1946), went to an Asian collector for HK$27,207,500. While shy of its estimate of HK$30/40 million, the painting nevertheless achieved a world record for the artist at auction. This work was acquired by the consignor from a Sotheby's, Taipei auction on 16 October 1994 for NT$10,170,100 (lot 59; estimate NT$7/9 million). Six months later, it did not sell at another Sotheby's, Taipei auction on 16 April 1995 (lot 30; estimate NT$10/15 million). Perhaps its failure in the spring 1995 sale was a blessing in disguise as the collector was able to make a 900 per cent return on investment thirteen-and-a-half years later, excluding inflation and currency fluctuations.
There was also a selection of works by Luo Zhongli spanning the different artistic styles of his career. Despite an area The cover lot (970) of `Contemporary Chinese Art Part II', Yue Minjun's Take The Plunge dated 2002, fetched HK$20,487,500 (lot 970; estimate HK$12/20 million). Yue's recent spectacular results at auction have increased his market pricing exponentially. The top lot, Liu Xiaodong's Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats (Set of Eighteen) completed in 2004, achieved HK$61,927,500 (lot 938; unpublished estimate HK$40/50 million), a world record for the artist at auction. As the work was purchased three years ago at Beijing's China International Gallery Exposition for close to RMB4 million, the latest sale price represents a more than tenfold increase.
This sale was even more successful than the one held a year ago, prior to the subprime debacle - perhaps a signal that the majority of Asian buyers may be less directly affected by the adverse financial happenings in the US and of an unfailing demand. Given the prices reached by the top lots, Chinese contemporary art can be a sound investment vehicle offering far greater return than your usual financial instruments.
The first part of the controversial Estella Collection brought in HK$139.352 million, far above its high estimate of HK$93.6 million. One painting alone, Zhang Xiaogang's Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3, accounted for approximately a third of the total; it went to Greg Liu, a US-based Taiwan collector, for HK$47,367,500 (lot 1115; estimate HK$19.5/27 million). Paintings still dominated the sale with only Xu Bing's installation, The Living Word, making the top ten in this sale (lot 1151; estimate HK$3.5/4 million). It went to an Indonesian buyer for HK$7,607,500, a world record for the artist at auction.
Private investors assembled the collection between 2004 and 2007, with dealer Michael Goedhuis as their adviser. The collection was intended for study, but was acquired last summer by New York dealer William Acquavella (with Sotheby's declaring an ownership interest in all the lots of the sale) while it was still on exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. It is also worth noting that this is not the first time Acquavella has entered into a partnership with Sotheby's - in 1990, they bought the entire inventory of the Pierre Matisse Gallery consisting of 2,300 works, mostly of early 20th century Western masters, for US$143 million.
Although the speed at which the Estella Collection was assembled, published, exhibited and put up for sale may draw much criticism for its mercenary flavour, it underscores the general spirit of the contemporary Chinese art market. Through this experience, artists may become more inclined to use auctions as a primary market and, consequently, their stylistic developments will become ever more so a direct response to auction results.

Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3 By Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958), 1995 Oil on canvas Height 179 cm, width 229 cm Sotheby's `Contemporary Chinese Art III - The Estella Collection' sale, Hong Kong, 9 April 2008, lot 1115 Price: HK$47,367,500 (estimate HK$19.5/27 million)

The `Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings' sale was a success; with a blockbuster result of HK$75,908,499, against a pre-sale estimate of HK$27.4/39.4 million (97.9 per cent by value; 93.5 per cent by lot), it surpassed the totals achieved by each of the last two auctions held in Singapore. The sale benefited from a more international platform and crossover interests from other auctions. One buyer, who purchased several works from the younger generation of artists, paid HK$1,567,200 for Rudi Mantofani's Batas Bumi, a painting which depicts a swathe of small red-roofed and white-walled houses in the foreground against a majestic rise of blue and green mountains (lot 516; estimate HK$150/200,000). Although it was still the works of the 20th century masters that fetched the highest prices, it was to the presumed delight of Sotheby's when the works by contemporary artists consistently brought in prices at multiples of their high estimates. Cakrawala Warna #3, another work by Mantofani, sold for HK$2,287,500, over ten times its estimate of HK$150/200,000 (lot 568). An auction record for a contemporary Southeast Asian artist and also for the artist was achieved when a Taiwan buyer bought I Nyoman Masriadi's Jago Kandang for HK$2,887,500 (lot 534). There was much interest in this lot, with bidding starting at HK$400,000, well above its HK$150/200,000 estimate. At the `Important Collection of Vietnamese Paintings Featuring the Philip Ng Collection' sale, 42 of the 49 lots sold for a total of HK$19,367,500 (93.4 per cent by value; 85.7 per cent by lot). The top lot, his Vierge à L'enfant, went to an Asian buyer for HK$2,407,500 (lot 721; estimate HK$420/650,000).

by Yifawn Lee

New categories innovatively displayed and a different treatment to some catalogues were boldly introduced by Nicolas Chow, International Head of Sotheby's, Hong Kong's Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department, for the sales on 11 April. His novel ideas brought in an enthusiastic crowd unconcerned about the global economic downturn, giving Sotheby's their highest total of HK$757,970,250 to date in works of art (369 lots offered).
The highlight of the day was the record established for Chinese metalwork by a Western collector who paid HK$116,807,500 for a Xuande period gold tripod vessel finely chased with five-clawed dragons and inlaid with gems in the `Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Ming and Qing Imperial Gold' sale (lot 2325; estimate HK$60/80 million). The vessel is among only four known Xuande gold examples preserved outside China, all of which were sold as a group in the George Eumorfopoulos sale at Sotheby's, London in May 1940 for £1,450. The present vessel was later acquired by Carl Kempe, one of Sweden's most avid collectors, who amassed, mainly in the first half of the 20th century, an impressive collection of Chinese gold and silver. It was widely exhibited and published prior to the collection being sold by Kempe's heirs in 1997 to The Weland Group, a private Swedish company in the building industry, who opened the Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn in 1999 (see Orientations, November 1999, pp. 59-65). They had also acquired Kempe's ceramic collection in 1996. In January this year, it was all for sale again and Chow secured the collection with a handshake after 24 hours of uncontested negotiation with the group. This enabled Sotheby's to keep their estimates in line with other top-level works of art rather than rival offers. An effort to keep the collection intact failed after the Swedish Government declined to purchase it - not surprising given its lack of support to cultural institutions (see `The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm Needs Help Again!' in Orientations, March 2008, pp. 177-78 and the letter to the editor in this issue). The combination of provenance, a new category, reasonable estimates and the enduring allure of gold helped form the results - seventeen of the 25 lots have now been dispersed, mostly back to China, for a total of HK$171,247,003 (99.8 per cent by value).

Vessel and cover Xuande period (1426-35) Width 18.5 cm Gold with precious stones Sotheby's `Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Ming and Qing Imperial Gold' sale, Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, lot 2325 Price: HK$116,807,500 (estimate HK$60/80 million)

Of the twenty Ming and Qing period ceramics in `A Tradition of Elegance: The Leshantang Collection', consigned under competitive conditions by a collector from Taiwan, only six found buyers for HK$52,752,497 (66.4 per cent by value). Many had been acquired through auction since the early 1980s and came from impressive collections, but in the current market there is less demand for such classical types and most have a `price tag’.
The tempo picked up for `Two Song Treasures from a Japanese Collection', which included a Guan vase that had been in the same collection since before WWII. The simple form, luminous bluish glaze and delicate crackle of the vase make it the most desirable of the some dozen Guan wares of comparable quality preserved worldwide, mostly in museums. Hong Kong dealer Maria Kiang outbid another young collector from Taiwan to win it for HK$67,527,500 (lot 2601; estimate HK$55/70 million).
The catalogue for `Tao: The Jiansongge Collection' successfully conveyed why these three-dimensional works, admired by the literati from as early as the Song period, are so visually compelling to new Asian and Western collectors without prior knowledge of the field. Enthusiasm resulted in all but one of the 27 lots going for HK$18,392,248 (84.9 per cent by value). Four buyers snapped up seventeen lots between them, with the top prices going to a Yuan period Lingbi rock for HK$3,847,500 (lot 2727; estimate HK$3/5 million) and a Ming period Taihu example for HK$2,647,500 (lot 2706; estimate HK$2/2.5 million).
The top lot in `Splendours of the Qing Court' revealed how publicity surrounding auctions of imperial wares has brought new buyers to the market. An elaborate Qianlong period Tibetan-style turquoise cloisonné ewer had failed to sell at auction in Christie's, Hong Kong in November 1997, but this time it proved irresistible to an Asian collector who paid HK$56,327,500, setting a world record for Qing gold (lot 2842; estimate HK$50/70 million). It did have the extra sanction of having been loaned by Jules Speelman to the Royal Academy for the exhibition `China: The Three Emperors' in London in 2006. Forty-six of 82 lots sold for HK$313,869,001 (79.4 per cent by value).
Topping the charts in `Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art' was early blue-and-white porcelain, all of which sold to Asian collectors, the most expensive being a Yuan jar and cover that had been widely exhibited in Japan. It went for HK$22,727,500 (lot 2927; estimate HK$20/30 million).

Galerie Koller's `Asian Art' sale in Zurich on 15 March was fairly successful, with a sale total of CHF1,055,000. The highlight was a pair of large covered vases from the Qianlong period (lot 445; estimate CHF25/35,000), which sold to a UK dealer for CHF150,000, way above estimate. The vases were finely decorated with court ladies plucking lotus flowers in famille-rose enamels.

A complete list of galleries in the 798 Art Zone (Dashanzi Art Distritc), Caochangdi East End Art Zone, Jiuchang Art District and others parts of Beijing together with information of a few summer exhibitions. For example, the leading New York art gallery, PaceWildenstein, will open Pace Beijing in Jiuxianqiao Road, 798 Art Zone on 8 August 2008 with an inaugural show `Encounters' will feature works by Zhang Huan and Zhang Xiaogang and those of Western artists such as Chuck Close, Alex Katz and Lucas Samaras. The 185-square-metre space has been designed by New York architect Richard Gluckman and Leng Lin, a Beijing-based leading critic, has been appointed president of the gallery.

Pace Beijing
(Photography by Yu Long)

Red Gate Gallery's August 2008 exhibition at 2 Jiuxianqiao Road in 798 Art Zone and also at Dongbianmen Watchtower in Chongwen District titled `Olympic Stars' features works by established artists Li Gang, Lu Peng, Liu Qinghe and Zhou Jirong, and emerging artist Wei Qingji.

Duel
By Wei Qingli (b. 1971), 2007
Ink and mixed media on paper
Height 190 cm, width 250 cm
`Olympic Stars'
Red Gate Gallery
August 2008

The exhibition `Our Future: Guy and Myriam Ullens Collections' at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art at 4 Jiuxianqiao Road in 798 Art Zone from 17 July to 12 October 2008 features works by over 50 artists including Chen Zhen, Gu Wenda, Huang Yong Ping, Wang Du, Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang, Qiu Zhijie, Wu Jicong, Wang Jianwei and Yang Fudong, and performances by He Yunchang and Yan Jiechang.

The title of F2 Gallery's August 2008 exhibition at 319 Caochangdi East End Art Zone is `Group Show: Works by Li Qing, Feng Shu, Li Songhua and Zeng Lu'.

The highlight of Art Cave - Beijing's summer 2008 exhibition at 79 Dongsanhuan South Raod, Chaoyang District is a work by Kan Tan.

Wind Series
By Kan Tan (b. 1963), 2007
Marble
Height 35.5 cm, width 18 cm
Art Cave - Beijing

An exhibition `Lock/Link', opening end July until early October 2008, celebrates the opening of Hanart Beijing at 1 Art Space, Hegezhuang Village, Cuigezhuang, Chaoyang District. Comprising three parts - `Little Hong Kong', `Hong Kong Focus' and `Residency in the Capital' - it is intended to create an awareness of Hong Kong's cultural scene and its artists.

In the March 2008 issue, Orientations published an appeal from my compatriot, N. G. D. Malmqvist, urging international protests against the staff reductions that Swedish government authorities have now already made at the notoriously understaffed Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (MFEA) in Stockholm, as well as at its sister museums governed by Sweden's National Museums of World Culture, a state agency ruling four such museums (the other three are the new Museum of World Culture, in Gothenburg, and the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities and the National Museum of Ethnography, both in Stockholm). This formal arrangement, set down by Sweden's Parliament in 1998, is incorrectly described by Malmqvist. But he is correct, of course, that the recent staff cuts should be protested. Anthony Hardy, in his response, is also quite right that this treatment of the MFEA collections is both a travesty and a shame for Sweden.
But how then can it be that Swedish governments, whether social-democratic or conservative, fail to share this view? After all, they did not just enforce the recent downsizing. Instead of making the most of this unique Asia connection - as international observers might expect Sweden to try to do - they have long given the MFEA short shrift. Malmqvist omits a number of facts that I believe would be of interest to readers when pondering this question. The following is based on insights gained during my recent experiences as director of the MFEA, a position I held for about five years. Returning in 2000 to take up this post after having spent many years abroad, I expected to find a well-managed museum where it would be possible to focus on showing more of the original collections and on engaging wider local audiences. I also hoped to forge a connection between the museum and colleagues amongst the new generations of scholars in China, as well as audiences in Asia, for whom the museum is also very important - increasingly so.
I cannot overemphasize the shock and distress I experienced to find instead widespread disorder and systemic mismanagement, hard to detect from the outside, but seriously impeding both research and the development of exhibitions, not to mention endangering the collections themselves. The meticulous registers once compiled by the MFEA's founding director, Johan Gunnar Andersson, had been delinked from storage locations ever since the museum moved in 1959, and no proper acquisition registers had been maintained since(!). In many places there were piles of disorganized and forgotten objects awaiting, as it were, `archaeological' recovery. For example, the personal archives, photos and equipment of the renowned art historian Osvald Sirén, whom Thomas Lawton mentions in his letter, were in sad disarray and threatened by improper temperatures and dampness; some were in the never-repaired, partly floorless, fire-prone middle section of the historic MFEA building, which still remained as our Navy left it in 1959. In one corner we spotted a blocked-off, inaccessible cabinet that turned out to contain a dust-covered archaeological collection from the Hedin expeditions which had long been declared lost. And so on. As for the old (Swedish labels only) displays dating mostly from 1963, in their own time a considerable achievement, they too had become both outdated and indisputably unsafe.
Fortunately, the museum was also facing a different kind of challenge, which could be turned into an opportunity. This was the separate threat of forced closure issued by the independent Workers' Safety Agency, which demanded urgent infrastructure modernization. Between 2002 and 2004 we were able to meet this challenge, completing an extensive renovation that included handicap access, lifts, reinforced floors and climate control in storage rooms, secure photo and document archive rooms, and so on. We also provided the main exhibition area with an indoor connection to the isolated East Asian Library, to enable a better visitor flow between the two.
But perhaps most significantly, we seized the chance to launch an urgent conservator-led project of registration, ID photography and bar-coding for all objects. A new permanent exhibition with artefacts from the Neolithic period in China was also prepared, together with Chinese archaeologist Chen Xingcan and others. As well, we co-authored a new history of the beginnings of the MFEA, and of Chinese archaeology, in the 1920s (Magnus Fiskesjö and Chen Xingcan, China Before China: Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the Discovery of China's Prehistory, Stockholm, 2004).
The renovations and adaptations of the museum building constituted a substantial government investment. This was a very delicate matter as not a few bureaucrats actually still hoped to eliminate the museum, in defiance of Parliament's 1998 decision to let us stay in place on the museum island in central Stockholm. In countless behind-the-scenes battles I always insisted on that decision as the only legitimate basis for serious long-term planning, clearly the key challenge for the museum. The heroic efforts of the limited but proud staff in completing the renovation work in time for the scheduled gala reopening in September 2004 deserve special mention and recognition, not least since this expedient work and the new infrastructure investment warded off any immediate threat to the museum's existence.
And yet, throughout these dramatic new developments, both the previous director Jan Wirgin and especially professor Malmqvist withheld their support and mysteriously declined my own invitations to join us on-site to see the fruits of the hard-won investments. Instead, from a distance, they publicly berated our work, misrepresenting it in the press - without once bothering to call to check the facts. Why? It may be pointed out that Malmqvist had been a longstanding member of the government-appointed museum oversight board in the preceding period during which the museum failed to modernize, thus fuelling the widespread and by no means unfounded accusations that the museum was outdated, failing to reach out to broader audiences, and in dire need of change.
In any case, their uncalled-for campaigning caused considerable consternation among our busy staff, and it is clear that it was harmful to the museum in several respects. It further strengthened the hand of the museum's main enemies, those powerful bureaucrats and politicians who were keen on curbing any new investments, not only in terms of renovation to the infrastructure and display but also in terms of recruiting staff - lobbying for the hiring of specialized academic staff was, already, like pulling wisdom teeth. Scholarship was irrelevant to these figures, who were strongly anti-intellectualist and dreamed of `outsourcing' any `knowledge production' to Sweden's universities, even though the necessary expertise in Asian archaeology and art has long been rare there - as strange as that may sound, given Sweden's old reputation in this field.
In other articles (Magnus Fiskesjö `Quanqiuhua xia de niliu: Ruidian shijie wenhua bowuguan weiji jiqi yuanyin' [`Counter-currents of Globalization: The Crisis of Sweden's World Culture Museums, and its Origins'], in Zhongguo wenwubao [China Cultural Relics News], Beijing, 14 September 2007, p. 6 and Magnus Fiskesj<148>, `The Trouble with World Culture: Recent Museum Developments in Sweden' in Anthropology Today, vol. 23, no. 5 [October 2007], pp. 6-11), I have offered a more extended analysis of the problem of just why former as well as current Swedish governments should fail to share the seemingly perfectly sensible opinion (held by myself and apparently by all three writers in the March 2008 issue of Orientations) that Sweden's public custody of the MFEA collections carries solemn responsibilities to the world. The most recent dismissals of indispensable behind-the-scenes staff like conservators are indeed outrageous, as is the curious failure to rethink the harmful, hybrid `market rent' system for public institutions. But I beg to differ with Malmqvist and others when they imply that the order of things at the museum from the 1960s to the 1990s was good enough, or even acceptable. Instead, it was very much part of the problem, because it made the museum more a private club than a public museum ready to face today's global challenges. And, worse, this only helped those bureaucrat-politicians with real power who were never interested in addressing the museum's fundamental problems.
I believe that the most serious issue remains the continued lack of a full and open accounting to the world of the MFEA collections, in practice still largely inaccessible. This should be the first demand from the international community. Meaningful protests against the reductions to an already minimal staff of professionals, and the resulting failure to care for these world culture collections, should all be made in that context.
In these days of increasingly forceful demands from the source countries for the restitution of illicitly acquired artefacts, the stakes are high and the global-ethical implications heavy. Thus, any serious discussion of the curious serial failures of past and present Swedish governments, who have really only maintained the facade of the MFEA, would certainly be appropriate and valuable.
Magnus Fiskesjö is a former director of the MFEA (2000-05) and now teaches Anthropology and Asian studies at Cornell University. He can be contacted on magnus.fiskesjo@cornell.edu

by Alonzo Emery, a Harvard-China fellow and writer based in Beijing

On 18 March, the directors of some of the world's most renowned art institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Hermitage and the Louvre, as well as Beijing's Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum, met in Shanghai to discuss transnational museum cooperation in a colloquium, `Sharing and Promoting Human Civilization' sponsored by the Jiefang Daily Group. This was Jiefang's fourteenth edition in a series of discussions dedicated to cultural change broadcast on state-run television. Lingering unspoken behind the panellists?comments was the spectre of demands to not just `share' but rather `return' human civilization and the artefacts thereof to their country of origin. In a nation engaged in a full-scale nationalist propaganda campaign that, arguably, rivals the Bush administration's post-9/11 antics or Mao Zedong's anti-capitalist campaigns, this topic gained particular resonance with the attendees, largely mainland Chinese journalists, and one might speculate that the subject will only add to the Chinese public's nationalist fervour. The museum directors from the West, which included Neil MacGregor from the British Museum and Philippe de Montebello from the Met, tried their level best to stress their institutions' efforts to share cultural treasures originally extracted through often nefarious means. Their attempts to depict their establishments as open to the world seemed, however, to fall on deaf ears. Skimmed of all niceties, the audience's clarion call rang out in clear, crudely blunt tones: give us back our stuff.
The British Museum and the Met representatives highlighted initiatives that make their collections accessible to the public, such as free admission policies and online documentation of objects. Admittedly, free museum admission in China might put an unbearable strain on already heavily trafficked Chinese museums (the Palace Museum expects 10 million visitors this year), but, at a relatively high RMB30 to 40 for adult tickets, museum admission prices do not reflect the socialist ideal of inclusivity. Thus, even if objects from the Yuanmingyuan, for example, were returned to China, these pieces would remain inaccessible to most of the general public. Of course, collecting RMB30 is more easily accomplished than amassing the air and hotel fare for a stay in London.
Attempting to steer the discourse toward safer territory, MacGregor stressed the British Museum's function as a bridge between myriad cultures in one of the world's most heterogeneous cities. For example, in 2006 the museum invited craftsmen to create a large sculpture of the goddess Durga, which was later set afloat on the Thames, in place of the Ganges, during Durga Puja celebrations. Such outreach initiatives should garner the British Museum respect, but the motives behind these efforts might be less than altruistic. By the time Mr MacGregor's speech had referred to the museum's goal of `cultural understanding' for the tenth time, this author stopped keeping count. In part, what the British Museum wants countries like India or China (from which many artefacts were indeed stolen) to `understand' is that it is willing to reach out to the diaspora, or even loan pieces of lesser significance for shows back home, but it is not returning anything.
The British Museum's not-so-subtle posturing on the issue of questionably acquired objects begs the question: should institutions or collectors return works that are later found to be stolen? Some pieces pillaged during World War II have been returned to the families that once owned them and there are societies working with teams of lawyers to return more, such as the World Jewish Congress's Commission for Art Recovery. As expected, the discussants tried to make the case that it is most helpful to see works from around the world displayed together in order to compare and contrast. In 2000, the Met's `Year One', showcasing works all produced in 1 CE, did just that. Chinese museums would be hard pressed to produce such an exhibition, even if they borrowed heavily from other museums, because their collections simply do not have the international breadth of those in the Met or the British Museum.
Museums in the West are right to feel nervous when talk shifts to returning artefacts, as the precedent set by such actions could be disastrous to collections. Recently, the J. Paul Getty Museum returned two steles to the Greek government. And already in 2006, the Met signed an accord with the Italian government promising the return of twenty artefacts in its collection that were reportedly stolen from Italian archaeological sites.
As claims to recover stolen booty mount, Western museums also face a public with a waning enthusiasm for antiquities - a public which, with its interest piqued, could be helpful in campaigning to have objects stay put. In fact, some of the Met's most popular exhibitions of late have had very little to do with antiquity. Hot ticket shows, those that inspire lines along Central Park, have primarily stemmed from the Costume Institute; one of these was the recent presentation of early 20th century French designer Paul Poiret's corset-less gowns, which occupied much of the Met's new Greek and Roman reliquary rooms. The Met's growing sartorial leanings lead cultural diviners to question whether it has sold out to the demands of a fast-food nation and the big bucks associated with financial backing from a major fashion house like Chanel, Dior or Cavalli. Even the Guggenheim in New York, which boasts a truly awesome collection of abstract, surrealist and post-impressionist art, gave Giorgio Armani exclusive use of the round in 2000. Chinese museums, and art spaces everywhere, have followed `suit'. Most recently, the relatively young Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Shanghai hosted a glitterati-infested extravaganza dedicated to the art(?)work of shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo. Chinese starlet Zhang Ziyi and actor Tony Leung, well-respected art aficionados both (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), made it to the opening along with lesser-known American actors.
I suppose there is something socialist or at least democratic in the choice to put on fashion shows at museums. Give the people what they want: stars and fashion, bread and circuses. The British Museum seems to understand this principle at least, and slips in art education through the back door. According to MacGregor, while its exhibitions always centre on a particular object, many of them try to weave in the cultural context in which it was produced. For example, last year the museum sponsored several festivals linked to its showcasing of an exquisitely simple Korean moon jar from the Choson dynasty.
Rather than looking inward at the wealth of its own collections, Chinese museology seems obsessed with numbers and expansion. There will be 1,000 new museums built on the Chinese mainland in the next decade. Shanghai alone plans to open 150 new ones- dedicated to everything from art to tap water - by the year 2010, when it will host the World Expo. But a show like the Ferragamo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art raises its own questions: has there been enough thought put into what these new institutions will hold? And, perhaps more theoretical, what is the definition of a `museum'? Is it simply a white box to show anything from ancient artefacts to blue-suede shoes? Or is it an institution with a permanent collection that builds exhibitions around carefully selected pieces? Permanent collections have to start from somewhere, and these new museums should set a vision for what areas of art they want to focus on and begin collecting pieces and planning exhibitions from there. Shoe shows aside, many new art spaces in China recognize that if China cannot be the front runner in showing its own antiquities, it can lead the charge in both displaying the works of its contemporary artists and nurturing exchanges between East and West. MOCA returned to this more successful territory in May with `Night on Earth', which linked art events in Shanghai, Berlin and Helsinki. The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), which Belgian artificial sweetener tycoon Baron Ullens opened last November, simultaneously showed a retrospective of Xiamen Dada co-founder Huang Yong Ping (one of the artists that took part in the `Magicians of the Earth' show at the Centre Pompidou in that ill-fated year, 1989) alongside an international exhibition featuring Chinese and Western artists. In April, the opening show at Beijing's new mega-space, the Iberia Centre for Contemporary Art, also featured Sino-Western juxtapositions.
The proliferation of museum spaces on the mainland and the multitude of exhibitions dedicated to some of China's more famous prodigal sons - think Cai Guo-Qiang's Guggenheim show coming to Beijing during the Olympics - as well as exhibitions showcasing the West's own prodigal sons - think Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol in Beijing this spring - are not just extensions of China's dizzying economic and cultural growth, but are also political statements. By opening a decadent number of museums in a short amount of time, China can achieve the dual goal of proving its economic development and also its cultural reform and openness. Even Palace Museum director Zheng Xinmiao wanted to get in on the political game during the Jiefang Daily colloquium. It was no coincidence that Zheng dedicated the majority of his speech to the Palace Museum's efforts to preserve and showcase Tibetan art. Cynicism aside, Zheng outlined initiatives that, if executed, will result in the restoration of Tibetan Buddhist temples and preservation of artefacts throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region and also largely Tibetan areas of mainland China, such as western Sichuan.
The fact that a conservative art institution like the Palace Museum would wax political demonstrates the exciting role that art spaces can play in China. The UCCA's first show displayed work from the `China Avant-Garde' exhibition held at the National Art Museum of China in 1989, including Xiao Lu and Tang Song's installation Dialogue. Xiao Lu's firing of a bullet into the installation led authorities to shutter the show in '89 and won her eternal life in art magazine opinion pieces thereafter. So, it is places like the UCCA where China can showcase its movement, albeit slow, towards cultural liberalization. Believe it or not, in some cases it is the Chinese government that is more open to controversial modes of expression. When asked about censorship of his show in Beijing, Huang Yong Ping laughed off the notion, stating that his greatest troubles came in Canada, where his work Theatre of the World was removed after animal rights protestors succeeded in barring the use of live animals. This time in Beijing, Huang was even able to show part of his Bat Project, an installation once banned on mainland soil after the US consulate in Guangzhou objected that it trivialized the crashing of an American EP-3 spy plane into a Chinese aircraft in March 2001.
As part of the ART HK 08 festivities that opened on 14 May, Hong Kong-based Asia Art Archive continued the dialogue on the future of museums by inviting art world luminaries such as Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator of the Tate Modern, and Mori Art Museum co-founder David Elliot to a symposium dedicated to the growth of Asian art spaces. This topic is most timely, with Hong Kong planning its West Kowloon cultural district and places like Abu Dhabi touting ambitious plans to invite the Guggenheim and the Louvre to set up shop on its shores. It all sounds great, but let's just hope that after hundreds of millions are spent on these spaces, they don't simply become repositories for fashion retrospectives - and yet, who doesn't love a good shoe or a raucous circus?