-An Siyuan
recall
Text/Cao Xingyuan
History is a strange phenomenon and existence, sometimes it is inherited by events, and sometimes it is inherited by others. In other words, a matter that attracts everyone's attention can make an unsurprising person enter history, or a very ordinary thing become a historical event because of the intervention of a celebrity.
There are dozens and hundreds of famous overseas collectors, whose independence and peace have aroused widespread concern and are known as "the godfather of Asian art". Such decency and talent made Wang, a great collector who died a few years ago, feel sorry for him. Wang, now living in new york, was born in a wealthy family in Suzhou. After arriving in the United States in the early 20th century, he began to teach a group of Americans how to identify, collect, write and understand China's pen and ink.
An Siyuan is in the apartment.
At the age of 85, An Siyuan accidentally fell from his residence in new york and died, so all the remaining private collections were auctioned, and six auctions were held in seven days. All the collections were scattered and 80160,000 yuan was seized, which attracted the attention of collectors, antique dealers and many people who are entering the climax of collection and art trade in China. Of course, inevitably, some people also have some complaints about these six auctions.
For example, some people think that this pair of round-backed chairs in Huang Huali sold for more than 9 million dollars, which is slightly beyond the current value of the chairs.
Folk art collection has formed a large-scale business model in Europe and America, and also derived a series of norms and practices. In my opinion, what An Siyuan left at home was not a collector's design, but the property of a famous antique dealer.
The only time I went to his house was by accident, but the impression was quite shocking. The first feeling after entering the door is that I have seen too many gadgets, and I feel that Alibaba has entered a treasure house. The second feeling is that the collection is chaotic. These collections are not so much for a collection purpose as because, as an antique dealer, he likes them very much, is unwilling to sell them, or cannot sell them for other reasons.
A collector has his own preferences and concerns, which can basically be seen from the furnishings at home.
Generally speaking, collectors can be divided into the following categories: special collectors only collect the works of an artist, or the works of a certain theme, or even everything containing a certain image. For example, I know a mother-daughter collector who specializes in collecting all things containing dragonflies. The other is vertical collection. That is, taking the development of art history as a clue, collecting works in different historical periods. The other is horizontal collection, which shows the works of different artists of the same era in the collection as much as possible. There is also an overlay collection; Coverage sets are relatively large, including vertical sets. In the vertical collection, there are some special historical periods or painters have made horizontal collections, even special collections.
Generally speaking, serious collectors are surrounded by two kinds of people: an antique dealer and an art historian. Sandi McTaige, former president of Albert University, and Celia McTaige, his wife, are members of the current school board. They are the new masters of China's antique collection, surrounded by antique dealers An Siyuan and Zhang Hong, British art historian Wei Tuo and some American art historians. Probably in the mid-1970s, Mr. and Mrs. McTeague entered the field of art collection in China, and they were directly positioned as mainly palace works and cultural relics.
In the1970s, the things in the Qianlong period were not valuable, but as a new Tibetan, this position has profound implications: first, the background of the court will always have supreme color; Secondly, although the dry things were worthless at that time, after all, Emperor Qianlong was famous for his collection, which led to the standardization of collection in the late Qing Dynasty. Therefore, within this positioning, as long as the works of art entered or came from the Qing Dynasty, they were all included in MacTaqi's collection system. Therefore, their collection orientation is inclusive, and at the same time, the Qianlong period is regarded as a horizontal concern.
By the 1980s, the MacTaige family's collection had reached a considerable scale, so she and her husband invited a group of antique dealers and art historians, including me, who have been relying on these people to identify all her things. One of my favorite works is Dong Qichang's calligraphy. Written in the last days of Dong Qichang, no matter from the spirit of pen and ink, or from the time of leisure.
During the days when I lived in McTague's house, I learned more about An Siyuan. An Siyuan is an American. When he was young, he met Professor Wang who taught Chinese at Yale University. Professor Wang not only gave him this unforgettable name, but also brought him into China collection and China culture.
An Siyuan's eagerness to learn and cleverness made him step by step into the center of this industry and gradually made his own brand in new york. We went to see the preview of An Siyuan's auction in new york and the preview before the auction, and stood there and talked with An Siyuan several times in the warehouse of the auction company. I clearly remember that once he made a big work and he was very happy. He waved a huge gold-inlaid jade ring and held a huge cigar, saying, Xingyuan, I have finished my work this year, so I can take a vacation. Come out with us. I said it was only a few months! He said that not only this year, but also next year's work has been finished.
He was very proud of his harvest and took me to see the priceless antique. This is the difference between antique dealers and collectors; Collectors would rather die than sell what they like, while businessmen appreciate good things, but they will sell anything as long as they can get a good price.
An Siyuan's home on new york Avenue.
So his days are marching in the rhythm of selling and buying. But he still kept his favorite things with him, such as the big jade ring that never left his hand. Now the whereabouts of this ring is a mystery. It is said that the ring has not appeared after seven days of auction.
While MacTagore was evaluating all the collections, I was arranged to sit next to him at dinner every day. He is good at talking, and the sound at the dinner table is the most penetrating.
Chatting, he suddenly showed me his hand and said, "Xingyuan, have you ever seen such a beautiful jade?" What do you think of this jade? "I said yes, but he disagreed with my answer. He said, "It is good. How many jadeites have you seen before, so transparent, so beautiful and so big? You're right! This is top-of-the-line. It's not this big. I will never let it leave. I specially invited a goldsmith to Hong Kong to make a gold ring according to my own design and set this jade here. Wear it on your hand and never leave your body again. "
While talking, he gestured, and accidentally, his ring hit the goblet next door and broke it. Sandy McTaige immediately said, "It doesn't matter if you make a glass, just leave us the ring." An Siyuan immediately replied, I will not leave this ring until I die. When I die, the ring will follow me.
Celia went on to say, "You can't wear this ring. If you die, I will go to your funeral, take off the ring and take it with me. Just kidding. " An Siyuan said seriously, you can't take it, you can't take it. I knew I was going to die, so I swallowed it.
As soon as everyone talked about this time, they couldn't drink any more and kept drinking. By this time, the servants at home had changed their glasses and wine, and then they drank.
An Siyuan's life collection was exhausted in seven days, but this ring did not appear.