As I’m sure you all have figured out by now, I have trust issues. I need to verify information with my own eyes. So naturally, when I came across an old handwritten notecard in the acquisition file for our Balakrishna (1997.010.010), I was skeptical when I saw the reference to the sculpture being in a 1935 exhibition at C. T. Loo’s gallery in Paris. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Our object was indeed with C. T. Loo in 1935. But who was Loo?
The dealer known in Europe and North America as C. T. Loo (1880–1957) was born Lu Huan Wen in Lujiadou, a small village in Zhejiang on the east coast of China. Orphaned by the age of ten, Lu spent his teenage years working as a cook for the wealthy merchant Zhang family. In 1902, the anti-communist and soon-to-be anarchist Zhang Jingjiang was sent to Paris on appointment with the Chinese ambassador to France. Twenty-two-year-old Lu accompanied him as a servant.
In addition to his domestic responsibilities, Lu also worked in Zhang’s storefronts, selling Chinese imports to the people of Paris. It was here that Lu got his first taste of dealing Asian art to a European audience. Lu went into business for himself as Lu Quin Zhai, which was Frenchified into Loo Ching Tsai and ultimately C. T. Loo. By 1915, Loo’s business was truly international, with warehouses in China and galleries in Paris, London, and New York.
Loo entered the Asian art market at the right time. China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), had fallen. The changing fortunes of the imperial family and China’s elite meant that their art collections were on the open market for the first time. Loo’s business boomed under the Republic of China (1912–1949), whose government counted Loo’s erstwhile employers, the Zhang family, amongst their biggest supporters. In the 1920s, Loo added South and Southeast Asian sculpture, like the Carlos Balakrishna, to his inventory. The entire fourth floor of his custom-built, six-story gallery at 48 rue de Courcelles in Paris was devoted to Indian and Himalayan art.
Not unsurprisingly, Loo’s business suffered during World War II—and not just because of events in Europe. The Republic of China and its Loo-friendly government were severely weakened by Japan’s invasions during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Like what had happened in Russia 20 years earlier, the power vacuum in China was filled by the Chinese Communist Party and Mao Zedong. In 1948, Loo was declared an enemy of the state, and the Chinese Communist government publicly accused Loo of stealing China’s cultural heritage for the West. Loo would never return to China.
Despite his notoriety as a dealer, Loo’s sources and networks are not well understood. The most comprehensive source for Loo that I have found is Joanna M. Gohmann and Julie Robin, "C. T. Loo (EN)", published March 21, 2022, in Collectionneurs, collecteurs et marchands d'art asiatique en France 1700–1939. Gohmann and Robin point out that while Loo did make annual buying trips to China, not all his inventory was acquired in Asia. He purchased objects from public auctions in Europe and North America. Loo also drew on his vast professional and social networks for inventory as well.
While none of this gets me any closer to finding the original source of the Carlos Balakrishna, it does help us understand something of the object’s history and what the Asian art market was like in the 1930s. And you never know—there might be an even older index card out there waiting to be found!
