Riding the wind of rebirth

Afterwards, Dillon, who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and later as Chairman of the Met’s Board of Directors, personally donated tens of millions of U.S. dollars and called on social elites in the New York area who were interested in Chinese art and enthusiastic about public welfare to donate. He established a fund specifically for the acquisition of Chinese art. He also established a fund to hire Chinese art experts and hired Fang Wen, a famous American expert in Chinese calligraphy and painting, a professor at Princeton University, as the Minister of the Far East Department to guide the acquisition of Chinese calligraphy and painting.

After that, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of Chinese calligraphy and painting began to grow. It acquired a large number of Song and Yuan Dynasty calligraphy and paintings from the famous New York collector Wang Jiqian. Many of them were once the collection of the famous 20th century painter Zhang Daqian, including "Zhao Yebai" by Han Gan of the Tang Dynasty, "Summer Mountain" by Qu Ding of the Song Dynasty, "Viewing the Waterfall" by Ma Yuan of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Double Pines in the Distance" by Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty, "Yushan Forest and Valley" by Ni Zan, as well as works by famous calligraphers and painters or painting schools such as Dong Qichang, Xu Wei, Qiu Ying, Gong Xian, the Four Wangs and the Eight Eccentrics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Due to Dillon's spiritual inspiration and Fang Wen's academic prestige, some famous collectors in the New York area donated their collections to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The most famous of these were paintings and calligraphy works donated by collector Gu Luofu, including "Distant Trees" by Guo Xi of the Northern Song Dynasty, "The Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru" by Huang Tingjian of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Mi Fu's large-character "Poems on a Boat in Wujiang".

Ti Lung also donated money to sponsor the construction of a Chinese calligraphy and painting exhibition hall so that these great works of art could be displayed in installments.

Later, with the active support of Mrs. Esther, a famous New York social activist, and Mrs. Weber and Mr. and Mrs. Ofuing, the museum systematically and methodically filled the missing items of Chinese artifacts in the collection system, and established a relatively complete historical series of decorative arts, mainly building a complete system of ancient Chinese lacquerware, ivory carvings, and textiles.

Today, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has become an indispensable place for studying ancient Chinese porcelain, jade, gold and silver wares, enamelware, ivory carvings, bronze ritual vessels, jade, pottery and Buddhist statues, calligraphy and painting, lacquerware, wood carvings, textiles and other artworks.

What interests Zhou Zhi more is the collection model established by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is a collaboration between collectors, sponsors and business directors. Collectors and sponsors are passionate and financially capable, and can focus on a certain type of cultural art or a specific collection. Business directors share similar interests with collectors and are often very good friends. They have a deep love for art, as well as deep professional knowledge and rich experience, and can provide guidance to collectors in identification and understanding.

The two complement each other. To put it nicely, both parties use their love for art, strong financial resources, profound historical knowledge and broad cultural concerns to form a planned and systematic art system that covers the entire cultural history of the museum's collection from a macro perspective.

To put it bluntly, it has formed a circle, but it is a benign circle.

Zhou Zhi is of course very interested in visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, because the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have a high degree of overlap with his own collections or cultural relics he has discovered.

For example, before the discovery of the lacquer-and-ramie statue of the Three Holy Ones of the Huayan Sutra, which was made by Yang Yin during the Gao Yang period of the Northern Qi Dynasty in Zhouzhi, the lacquer-and-ramie Buddha statue from the Longxing Temple in Zhengding, Hebei Province, which dated from the early Tang Dynasty and was stored in a museum, was once considered to be the earliest lacquer-and-ramie statue.

For example, for Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of the first overseas museums to compile its collection into a complete series. It not only collects blue and white porcelain from a few famous eras, but also attaches great importance to the collection of blue and white porcelain from dynasties other than Yongle, Xuande, Jiaqing and Wanli, including the blank period.

This is consistent with the collection direction of Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain in Zhouzhi. However, perhaps due to the pursuit of art, many of the Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain in big cities are export porcelains, full of characteristics of overseas porcelain and bold in shape.

However, the porcelains from the Ming Dynasty collected by Zhou Zhi tend to be more traditional Chinese shapes and patterns. The two have some differences, but they can complement each other.

According to An Siyuan's instructions, Zhou Zhi came to a small door guarded by security guards on the side of the Metropolitan Museum. An Siyuan's assistant had been waiting here and took him in. The Metropolitan Museum has three floors and more than a hundred exhibition rooms, but it is still very small for its numerous collections.

Generally, some porcelains from various dynasties in China would be selected and displayed in the corridor on the second floor for passers-by to browse. They are not as important as the separate mural of the Medicine Buddha in the previous display room, and the famous four-meter-high Northern Qi painted stone statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva.

The mural came from Guangshengxia Temple in Shanxi Province. After being disassembled, it was displayed in three places: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The ones in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art are works from the Yuan Dynasty, while the one in the University of Pennsylvania Museum is from the Ming Dynasty.

A new exhibition has just been set up in this hall. If you take the traditional tour route, you should first visit the Hall of Greek and Roman Cultural Relics here, and then move on to the art world of Asian civilization after visiting this hall.

Now I was brought directly here, and I was shocked by the murals and statues that occupied an entire exhibition room, as well as the calligraphy and paintings on several newly built screen-like partitions.

"The children are here." Because the calligraphy and paintings need to be protected, the lighting in the exhibition hall is rather special and not very bright. Zhou Zhi just focused his attention on the cultural relics and did not notice that there were quite a few people in the exhibition hall.

It was not until An Siyuan's voice rang in Zhou Zhi's ears that Zhou Zhi came back to his senses: "Mr.

"There is a joint exhibition of Chinese art at the Metropolitan Museum, divided into two categories: books and paintings." An Siyuan introduced to Zhou Zhi: "In addition to paper and silk works, the rest of the paintings are of course porcelain paintings. Your Longqing blue and white dragon pattern jar has made a small impact in the New York collection circle in recent days because of the special materials used. I sent it here and let them borrow it for a few days."

"Thank you, Mr. An." Although Zhou Zhi didn't particularly care about this, it was still a favor.

The experience of a collection being exhibited abroad is also an element of its value. For example, this large Longqing blue and white dragon-patterned jar purchased by Zhou Zhi has never been exhibited abroad. If it is directly put on auction, its value will definitely not increase. But if it has been loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is equivalent to being recognized by the "Big Four". Its value will immediately change, and it will easily attract popularity after being auctioned.

"In addition to this, there is actually another reason why I invited you here." An Siyuan introduced the foreigners who gathered around Zhou Zhi: "This exhibition is divided into two categories of Chinese art: calligraphy and painting. Painting starts from the pottery decorations of the Neolithic period, and calligraphy starts from oracle bone inscriptions. However, we had a small dispute about oracle bone inscriptions."

"I made a bet with them, saying that you can definitely solve this mystery for us." An Siyuan said with a smile, his words full of confidence in Zhou Zhi. (End of this chapter)