Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac have written a rollicking account of the acquisition of Chinese art and antiquities by Americans who came to China in the 19th and 20th centuries and took back vast collections from caves, palaces and the back rooms of dealers in Beijing. In “The China Collectors: America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures,” the authors describe how lovers of Chinese art roamed the country hunting for sculptures, wall panels, furniture, porcelain and paintings that are now housed in important museums in the United States. Some of the artworks they tried to send back were ruined in the process.
卡尔·E·梅耶(Karl E. Meyer)和沙林·布莱尔·布莱萨克(Shareen Blair Brysac)此前的写作已经对19世纪与20世纪来华收购中国艺术品和古董的美国人作了生动的刻画，这些美国人从洞穴里，宫殿里，还有北京商人的密室里拿走了大量的藏品。在《中国藏家：美国追寻亚洲艺术珍宝的百年》(The China Collectors: America’s Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures)一书中，二人描绘了这些热爱中国艺术的人如何在中国各地游荡，搜寻雕像、壁画、家具、瓷器，还有画作，这些珍品现在都收藏于美国各大展览馆。一些艺术品还在运输过程中被损毁了。

Whether their forays represented a rapacious plundering of China’s past or the fortuitous preservation of antiquities that might otherwise have been destroyed by war or greed in China is a theme of constant debate. Mr. Meyer, a former editorial writer for The New York Times, and Ms. Brysac, a documentary producer with a degree in art history, straddle the fence on that question. They have plumbed personal papers, historical records and memoirs of the main characters to piece together a startling tale of Americans who went to great lengths to obtain the artifacts that became part of a booming trade in the United States and Europe. In an interview, they described their findings:
他们的侵袭究竟是算作对中国历史的疯狂掠夺，还是说在无意中让文物能够得以保存，使其免遭战火和贪婪之人的损毁，一直以来都是争议的焦点。梅耶和布莱萨克在这个问题上也莫衷一是。梅耶此前是《纽约时报》一名社论作家，布莱萨克则是一名拥有艺术史学位的纪录片制片人。他们研究了很多个人文件、历史记录，还有一些主要人物的回忆录，以此拼凑出了一部关于一群美国人为了得到艺术珍品而长途跋涉的惊人故事，这些艺术珍品日后都成为了欧美火热交易的一部分。在此次采访中，他们聊起了自己的研究成果。
Q. What was the inspiration for “The China Collectors?”
问：这本《中国藏家》的灵感是什么？
Ms. Brysac: We had been invited to be members of St. Antony’s, a graduate college at Oxford. However, we needed a project. In 1997, while we researching our first joint book, “Tournament of Shadows” on the Great Game in Asia, we had uncovered files in the Harvard archives relating to the acquisition of the great “Empress” frieze from Longmen in China, now in Kansas City. The correspondence between Laurence Sickman, then a scout for the newly founded Nelson Gallery in Kansas City, and his Harvard mentor Langdon Warner was exceptionally frank — to summarize: “Go for it!” This was off our topic then. But in 2012, we looked into it and discovered that provenance research on Chinese art was in its infancy, and there were many archives that had not been mined. We were sure we had a book.
布莱萨克：我们当时被邀请前去圣安东尼学院——哈佛一家研究生院——学习，我们就需要一个项目。早在1997年，我们在为第一本合著的书《阴影之旅》——那是一本关于亚洲大博弈的书——做研究的时候，我们就在哈佛档案堆里发现了那些和收购“皇后礼佛图”(the great “Empress”frieze)相关的文件，当时是在中国龙门收购的，现在浮雕保存在堪萨斯城。劳伦斯·希克曼(Laurence Sickman)是当时堪萨斯城新成立的纳尔逊画廊(Nelson Gallery)的探员，他与其哈佛导师兰登·华纳(Langdon Warner)在信件中写得异常直白，简单地说就是：“快去拿！(Go for it!)”但当时这些东西和我们的题目不相干。而在2012年的时候，我们又仔细看了看，发现关于中国艺术品来源的研究还在初始阶段，还有很多档案还无人处理。我们当时就很确信我们可以写本书了。
Q. One of the most remarkable episodes is about Langdon Warner and the Dunhuang caves. The use of cloths soaked in thick glue applied to the walls to remove murals sounds so crude. How did that work? Where are the murals now? Where is the Tang Dynasty bodhisattva that he pried from its base?
问：提到兰登·华纳，最有趣的一件事情是关于敦煌莫高窟的。他们在墙上用被黏稠胶水浸透的布来取下那些壁画，听起来很原始。是怎样能拿下来的？现在那些壁画在哪里？那座被他从底座撬走的唐代菩萨现在哪去了？
Ms. Brysac: The method the Harvard art historian Langdon Warner used for removing the paintings in 1924 was based on that developed for detaching frescoes in Europe. But the Dunhuang paintings were not true frescoes. The techniques the Chinese artists used on the cave surfaces were quite different. Although Warner followed the best practices of the time, the caves were icy, the hot glue froze and became unworkable, so pigment remained on the walls when the strips were removed. Then he had to transport the 12 painting fragments and the Tang bodhisattva for 18 weeks in a springless cart, wrapped in his underwear.
布莱萨克：哈佛艺术史学家兰登·华纳在1924年移除这些画作的方法，是基于欧洲移除湿壁画的方法改进而来的。但敦煌的壁画并不是真的湿壁画。中国艺术家们在穴壁上用的技法很不一样。尽管华纳按照的是当时最好的办法在处理这些壁画，但洞穴里很冷，那些热胶水冻了起来就没法用了，所以那些布被拿起的时候后，画色还残留在墙上。然后他用衬衫包起这12片壁画和那座唐代菩萨，用一辆颠颠簸簸的马车运着它们，走了整整18个星期。
By the time they reached Cambridge, where they are now in the Harvard Art Museums, they were in a very bad state of preservation, and the conservator had a difficult time removing the glue-soaked pigment. Only five of the fragments and the bodhisattva sculpture are in good enough condition to be exhibited. However, the Getty Conservation Institute is now involved in the preservation of the Dunhuang material, including the remaining cave paintings.
等到它们被运到坎布里奇(Cambridge)，也就是它们现在被保存的哈佛艺术展览馆(Harvard Art Museums)的时候，它们保存的状况非常糟糕，文物管理人员费了好大功夫才移动了那些被浇水浸透了的壁画。其中只剩下五片壁画和那座菩萨雕像保存足够完好，得以展出。但现在盖蒂保护研究所(Getty Conservation Institute)也参与了这些敦煌文物，包括这些残存壁画的保护。
Q. Laurence Sickman, who later became the director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, was involved with some of Warner’s exploits. Could you explain?
问：劳伦斯·希克曼后来成了纳尔逊-阿特金斯艺术博物馆(Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)的总监，他也参与了华纳的探险之旅。能说说他吗？
Ms. Brysac: Warner had had his eye on the Longmen caves in Henan Province since 1909, but he had been unable to obtain funding from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he was then working, to explore them. The grottoes contain thousands of Buddhist statues. Both the French scholar Édouard Chavannes and the American collector Charles Lang Freer had them photographed between 1907 and 1911, and soon, dealers using Chavannes’s images in China and Europe were sending local peasants out to hack away at the unguarded sculptures.
布莱萨克：早在1909年，华纳就盯上了河南的龙门石窟，但他当时没法拿到波士顿美术馆(Museum of Fine Arts)的资金去进行发掘，他当时在那家展览馆工作。龙门石窟里有着数千座佛像。法国学者爱德华·沙瓦讷(Édouard Chavannes)和美国收藏家查尔斯·朗·弗利尔(Charles Lang Freer)在1907至1911年间给这些佛像拍了照片，不久之后，中国和欧洲的商人们就开始按着沙瓦讷的照片，雇一些当地的农民去把这些无人照看的佛像盗走。
Three Harvard-trained scholars, Warner, Sickman and Alan Priest, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum, had fixed upon what Priest described as the “Elgin Marbles of China,” two friezes from the Binyang cave showing the donors, Empress Wenzhao and the Emperor Xiaowen, with their courtiers. Sickman made notes and rubbings of the Empress frieze while it was still intact in 1931. But by late 1932, fragments — bits of hands, heads — began to appear in Beijing antique shops. When Sickman revisited the caves in 1933, he wrote Warner that “whole figures had been chipped from walls and niches.” What should he do?
华纳、希克曼还有当时大都会艺术博物馆(Metropolitan Museum)的馆长阿兰·普利斯特(Alan Priest)，这三名哈佛毕业的学者，把目光锁定到了龙门石窟宾阳洞的两条浮雕上，它们被普利斯特称作是“中国的埃尔金大理石雕”，描绘了建洞施主文昭皇后和孝文帝，以及他们的使臣。在1931年皇后礼佛图还完好的时候，希克曼对该浮雕做了记录和临摹。但在1932年末——一些浮雕的手、头——开始出现在北京的古董商店内。在希克曼1933年再次造访石窟时，他对华纳写道，“整个人像都被从石壁和壁龛里弄下来了。”他该怎么办呢？
The Fogg and the Nelson agreed together to provide funds to acquire all the pieces and reassemble them in Kansas City. Priest and the Met acquired the other pieces from a Beijing dealer who was then commissioned to acquire the remaining heads directly from the site. Sickman continued to express regret over the looting at the site. “I would give almost anything if it [the Empress frieze] had never left the Pin-Yang cave.”
福格艺术博物馆(The Fogg)和纳尔逊艺术博物馆于是同意一同出资，买下所有残片并将其带到堪萨斯城重新组装。普利斯特和大都会艺术博物馆从一个北京商人那里买下了所有其他的残片，他当时被委托从洞窟直接买下剩下的头像。希克曼此后一直对这次抢掠表示后悔。“如果能让它（皇后礼佛图）从未离开宾阳洞，我愿意付出几乎一切。”
Q. C.T. Loo was the leading dealer of Longmen sculptures. What happened to his collection? And what about the Longmen grottoes? What condition are they in?
问：卢芹斋(C.T.Loo)是龙门雕像的最主要经销商。他的藏品最后怎么样了？龙门石窟呢？它们现在是什么状况？
Ms. Brysac: C.T. Loo is viewed by the Chinese as the archvillain who abetted the destruction of their cultural heritage, because, unlike the American and Canadian curators, he was native-born. Loo conducted a mail-order business providing photos to dealers who then hired local peasants to steal sculptures now in many collections in the United States and Europe. He was an early supporter of the Kuomintang, so was well connected with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese and was able to get artwork out of the country, thus skirting China’s export laws. His Chinese inventory was confiscated by the Chinese Communists when they took over, but his galleries in New York and Paris continued to sell his stock. Upon his retirement, his New York gallery was taken over by Frank Caro. As to Longmen caves, they are now protected as a Unesco World Heritage site.
布莱萨克：卢芹斋被中国人看作是一个煽动毁坏他们文化古迹的大坏蛋，因为，和那些美国和加拿大的收藏家不同，他是一个中国人。卢芹斋当时的生意是信件预定式的，他提供照片给经销商，然后他们再雇佣当地农民去偷出那些雕像，现在那些雕像很多都收藏在欧美。他是国民党的早期支持者，和蒋介石的国民党人关系很好，所以能够绕过中国的出口法律，把很多艺术品运出国。在国民党掌权后，他的很多中国藏品被没收了，但他在纽约和巴黎的艺廊还继续出售他的藏品。在他退休的时候，他的纽约艺廊被弗兰克·卡罗(Frank Caro)接手了。至于龙门石窟，它现在被联合国教科文组织列为了世界文化遗址。
Q. Some American diplomats at the turn of the 20th century seem to have felt no qualms about taking out huge caches of Chinese art treasures. Herbert Squiers, the first secretary at the United States Legation, loaded up rail cars with artworks and then sold them to buy a 700-ton state-of-the-art yacht. Was there no shame at that time?
问：在20世纪初，一些美国外交官好像对于拿走大量中国文化遗产没有丝毫不安。赫尔伯特·斯奎尔(Herbert Squiers)，时任美国公使馆一等秘书，运走了几个火车车厢的艺术品，然后卖了它们，买了一架700吨的时髦游艇。那时候就没有点羞耻心吗？
Mr. Meyer: There was a developing sense of shame. As we write, by 1901, “looting had become bad form; at least a pretense of virtue was expected.” Thus, when The New York Times questioned the Metropolitan Museum about accepting donations from Squiers in 1901, an unnamed spokesman responded, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art does not accept looted art,” and since Squiers was “a gentleman without question,” it would be presumed his works “had been honestly got.”
梅耶：当时也有一丝羞耻感在慢慢发酵的。我们在书里写道，到1901年的时候，“抢掠已经变成了一件坏事；至少也要装得有一点道德感。”因此，当《纽约时报》在1901年质疑大都会艺术博物馆接受斯奎尔的捐赠时，一位未具名的发言人回应称，“大都会艺术馆不接受抢掠来的艺术品，”但因为斯奎尔“无疑是一位绅士，”所以我们认为他的捐赠是“正当得来的。”
As the years passed and disorders gripped China, even the pretense of virtue lessened. When Squiers auctioned his prizes a decade or so later, the sale catalogs underscored the imperial provenance of key works.
而随着时间流逝，中国陷入动乱，即使是那种虚伪的道德感都被削弱了。当十多年后当斯奎尔将他的藏品拍卖时，那次的出售目录无疑突显了关键藏品的帝国主义来源。
Q. You write that the Chinese government has basically depended on the art market to restore treasures to China. Chinese collectors pay large sums to bring back porcelain, sculpture, paintings. But might this approach change, and China demand that American museums return artworks?
问：你写道中国政府至今很大程度上是依靠艺术品市场来将这些珍宝带回中国。中国的收藏家花了大笔的钱才将那些瓷器、雕像、画作带了回来。这种方式会发生变化吗，中国会要求美国的博物馆归还艺术品吗？
Mr. Meyer: To date, Beijing has yet to formally demand the restitution of objects now in American museums. It has relied instead on market tools to secure recovery of disputed works at auctions, or through private sales, using as proxies either private collectors or the state-owned Poly Group. But yes, museum curators and directors are on the alert for changing signals.
梅耶：目前来说，北京方面还没有正式要求归还这些收藏于美国博物馆的珍品。中国一直依赖于市场工具拿回这些有争议的艺术品，或是通过拍卖，或是私人出售，他们用私人收藏家或是国有的保利集团(Poly Group)等代理人来进行这些操作。但没错，博物馆的馆长和总监们都对在警惕、留心这种变化。
As best as we could determine, the likely response to any formal demand would be, one, that the museum has a valid sale receipt and export license for objects acquired before 1970, the cutoff date for importing antiquities; two, that the work has been better protected and preserved than if it remained in situ; three, that yielding on legal grounds would fix a precedent for a swarm of other demands. Finally, four, if the original sale transaction now looks bad, it accorded with common practices over the era. For example, curators argue, though the reputed purchase of Manhattan from Native Americans for $24 now looks bad, should we now give them the island?
我们现在最多能确定的就是，任何正式的请求可能只会得到这样的答复：第一，博物馆拥有1970年之前所购买物品的有效的出售收据和出口凭证，1970年是进口古董文物的切割日期；第二，这些文物和如果留在遗址现场相比，得到了更好的保护和保存；第三，如果在法理上让步，会立下一个先例，继而引来一大堆其他的要求。最后，第四，即使说一开始的这些交易看起来不好，但它们也是符合当时的惯例的。比如，博物馆员们会说，那次从美国当地人手中买下曼哈顿的著名交易只花了24美元，如果那次交易也看起来不太好的话，我们要不要把这座岛还给他们呢？
But we at least owe an honest account of the original sale, as our book tries to offer regarding Chinese collections.
但的确，我们至少还缺少一个对这些初期买卖的一个公正的描述，在关于中国藏品这部分，这也是我们这本书旨在努力提供的。
Q. Is there unease at some American museums with substantial Asian collections that one day they may have to return some of their favorite things to China?
问：那么对于一些收藏了大量亚洲藏品的美国博物馆来说，他们有没有感到一丝不安？即某天他们可能要把一些他们最珍爱的藏品归还给中国呢？
Mr. Meyer: Museum officials worry that they may have to return some prizes to China, but opportunities also beckon for extended loans, swaps and other collaborative ventures. Chinese visitors now constitute the fastest-growing segment of cultural tourism, and flocks of mainland students are now enrolled in major U.S. universities. Against this, insiders credibly complain about a hard-driving mercantilism on the part of Chinese cultural officials seeking to maximize profits in loan programs. But, taken as a whole, the horizons are bright.
梅耶：博物馆的官员们当然担心有一天他们要把一些藏品还给中国，但是关于一些延期贷款、置换、合资的机会也会随之而来。目前中国的参观者在文化旅游业里是增长最迅速的群体，而且成群的中国大陆学生也在美国主要大学就读。而与之相反，业内人士据信也在抱怨中国文化官员身上来势凶猛的重商主义，他们一直想要将贷款项目利润最大化。但总的来说，前途是光明的。
Q. Your book comes out as the Robert H. Ellsworth collection, considered to be one of the finest private collections of Asian art, has been auctioned in New York for more than $131 million. What does that sale say about the desirability of Chinese antiquities in the United States, and in China?
问：在你们的新书面世之际，罗伯特·H·埃尔斯沃斯(Robert H. Ellsworth)的藏品在纽约卖出了1亿3千100万美元，他的藏品被认为是关于亚洲艺术最好的私人藏品之一。这次拍卖你们认为有没有说明中国文物在欧洲和中国的受追捧程度呢？
Mr. Meyer: The Ellsworth sale, in our estimate, is the last of its kind in America, and probably the West in general. It is no longer possible for a private person to assemble a collection of such magnitude. Times are long past when Chinese art was an underpriced bargain, when foreigners could shop in the mainland, and when collectors were still at the kindergarten level in their knowledge of Asian art. Robert Ellsworth was at once an innovative, pioneering dealer and a serious scholar. The sale totals may tell us a lot about the present and future of China collecting.
梅耶：埃尔斯沃斯的这次拍卖，按我们的估计，应该是在美国，甚至可能在整个欧洲的最后一次这种拍卖了。对于一个私人藏家来说再也没有可能收集到这个量级的藏品了。那些中国艺术品还是低价买卖，外国人能够在大陆进行收购，而且藏家们关于亚洲艺术的知识还停留在幼儿园阶段的老日子一去不复返了。罗伯特·埃尔斯沃斯曾是一个敢于创新的先驱商人，还是一个严肃的学者。这次拍卖的总价可以告诉我们很多关于中国收藏界现今与未来的事情。