Christine Howald | Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (original) (raw)
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The collecting of art and artefacts from East Asia has been in vogue in the Western world for hun... more The collecting of art and artefacts from East Asia has been in vogue in the Western world for hundreds of years with the forced opening of China, Japan and Korea from the mid-19 th century onwards, creating a market boom that resulted in thousands of objects entering collections worldwide. China in particular, during the first three decades of the 20 th century, became subject to the most intensive spate of collecting on the part of museum institutions and private collectors. In the past 20 years, the movement of these objects and the circumstances of their translocation have been increasingly the focus of curators and scholars investigating purchases related to the politics and market mechanisms under the Nazi regime. Despite research and numerous projects, we still do not know enough about the destiny of significant private collections dispersed between 1933 and 1945, the acquisition policies of museums at this time and the key actors and institutions involved in the art market for East Asian art in the first half of the 20 th century. The current international debates around the handling of objects that found their way into museum collections in connection with the colonial period present new challenges for collecting history and provenance research. This includes the revaluation of historical contexts, the reconstruction of looted and displaced collections in East Asia and the layout of a legal or ethical framework to address these issues. S
International Conference, Berlin 13.-15. Oktober 2016
Papers by Christine Howald
Entzug. Transfer. Transit - Menschen , Objekte, Orte und Ereignisse, 2024
»Dann stellt man ein, zwei, drei Provenienzforscher ein, hat aber nun einmal 500.000 Objekte in d... more »Dann stellt man ein, zwei, drei Provenienzforscher ein, hat aber nun einmal 500.000 Objekte in den Sammlungen-da kann man sich ausrechnen, wie lange es dauern wird, um all das zu recherchieren.«² »Maybe they realized that they are talking about the museum as a building and objects, but that they had never actually touched those objects, that they were never in contact with those objects. They had never realized that those objects are talking back to you.«³ Die Zitate des deutschen Journalisten Lorenz Rollhäuser und der namibischen Modeschöpferin Cynthia Schimming lassen die Bandbreite an Perspektiven, Erfahrungen und Emotionen erahnen, mit denen in Deutschland zurzeit über die Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Verflechtungen von Museumssammlungen diskutiert wird. Die Sammlungen des Ethnologischen Museums und des Museums für Asiatische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin stehen dabei besonders im Fokus. Dieser Aufsatz gibt einen Einblick in die Arbeit und Themen des Provenienzforschungsteams der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Forum Kunst und Markt, Dec 16, 2020
Research Papers in Economics, 2018
Nineteenth-century Western penetration into East Asia saw a peak during the Second Opium War (185... more Nineteenth-century Western penetration into East Asia saw a peak during the Second Opium War (1856-1860) when British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. 1 The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of government of the Chinese Emperor to the 1 Such as the right to establish diplomate legation in Beijing, to extend trade and travel rights and to legalise the Opium trade (Britain). The Second Opium War started in late 1856 with the attack of Guangzhou and ended on 24 October 1860 with the signing of the Convention of Beijing. For a very concise summary of the war see: Greg M. Thomas, The Looting of Yuanming and the Translation of Chinese Art in Europe,
During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privile... more During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of government of the Chinese Emperor to the northwest of the Chinese capital. Thousands of these objects – figures up to over a million have been suggested – were brought to Europe and are today in Western museums and private collections. Little is known about the quantity of objects that reached Europe, about the market mechanisms in the West, the collectors that purchased the artefacts from the Summer Palace, as well as the paths taken by the objects in the years after 1860: which objects arrived in Europe? In whose hands were they at what time? When did they change hands? Where are they today? While it is difficult to trace the marketing of the artefacts sold through dealers – due to the scarcity of available archives –, public auction sales are easier ...
Mäzenatentum als Mittel politischer Selbstdarstellung 1653–1661, 2011
Mäzenatentum als Mittel politischer Selbstdarstellung 1653–1661, 2011
Deutschland Postkolonial, 2018
As the issue of the place of the so-called « Benin Bronzes » in German collections reaches a satu... more As the issue of the place of the so-called « Benin Bronzes » in German collections reaches a saturation point in terms of media coverage , this article considers this proliferation of interest in relation to the comparative silence that surrounds other important cases of military activities that lead to acquisitions of important holdings in extra-European collections. By considering the trajectories of Benin bronzes alongside those of objects looted in China in the nineteenth and early twentieth century we intend to discuss the imbalance between contemporary representations of these histories and the archival reality of understanding the singular destinies of objects (pieces of art, craftsmanship, objects of worship and ancestral heirlooms) set into motion by the « small wars » of the colonial era.
Acquiring Cultures. Histories of World Art on Western Markets, 2018
During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privile... more During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of the government of the Chinese Emperor to the northwest of the Chinese capital. Thousands of these objects - figures up to over a million have been suggested - were brought to Europe and are today in Western museums and private collections. While it is difficult to trace the marketing of the artefacts sold through dealers - due to the scarcity of available archives - public auction sales are easier to access. This paper provides a systematic review of all Parisian sales between 1861 and 1869 in which artefacts from the Imperial Summer Palace were sold. The corresponding catalogues were matched with the minutes of the sales - a specifically French source providing unique information on sellers, buyers and prices of the sold objets.
The complete dataset with the description of artefacts and protagonists is available online :
Léa Saint-Raymond, "The Yuanmingyuan Loot at Parisian Auctions in the 1860s : Artefacts, Hammer Prices, Sellers and Purchasers", Harvard Dataverse, 2018, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0COI5J
Conferences by Christine Howald
Conference 22.-23.2.2024 Munich, Museum Fünf Kontinente
The collecting of art and artefacts from East Asia has been in vogue in the Western world for hun... more The collecting of art and artefacts from East Asia has been in vogue in the Western world for hundreds of years with the forced opening of China, Japan and Korea from the mid-19 th century onwards, creating a market boom that resulted in thousands of objects entering collections worldwide. China in particular, during the first three decades of the 20 th century, became subject to the most intensive spate of collecting on the part of museum institutions and private collectors. In the past 20 years, the movement of these objects and the circumstances of their translocation have been increasingly the focus of curators and scholars investigating purchases related to the politics and market mechanisms under the Nazi regime. Despite research and numerous projects, we still do not know enough about the destiny of significant private collections dispersed between 1933 and 1945, the acquisition policies of museums at this time and the key actors and institutions involved in the art market for East Asian art in the first half of the 20 th century. The current international debates around the handling of objects that found their way into museum collections in connection with the colonial period present new challenges for collecting history and provenance research. This includes the revaluation of historical contexts, the reconstruction of looted and displaced collections in East Asia and the layout of a legal or ethical framework to address these issues. S
International Conference, Berlin 13.-15. Oktober 2016
Entzug. Transfer. Transit - Menschen , Objekte, Orte und Ereignisse, 2024
»Dann stellt man ein, zwei, drei Provenienzforscher ein, hat aber nun einmal 500.000 Objekte in d... more »Dann stellt man ein, zwei, drei Provenienzforscher ein, hat aber nun einmal 500.000 Objekte in den Sammlungen-da kann man sich ausrechnen, wie lange es dauern wird, um all das zu recherchieren.«² »Maybe they realized that they are talking about the museum as a building and objects, but that they had never actually touched those objects, that they were never in contact with those objects. They had never realized that those objects are talking back to you.«³ Die Zitate des deutschen Journalisten Lorenz Rollhäuser und der namibischen Modeschöpferin Cynthia Schimming lassen die Bandbreite an Perspektiven, Erfahrungen und Emotionen erahnen, mit denen in Deutschland zurzeit über die Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Verflechtungen von Museumssammlungen diskutiert wird. Die Sammlungen des Ethnologischen Museums und des Museums für Asiatische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin stehen dabei besonders im Fokus. Dieser Aufsatz gibt einen Einblick in die Arbeit und Themen des Provenienzforschungsteams der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Forum Kunst und Markt, Dec 16, 2020
Research Papers in Economics, 2018
Nineteenth-century Western penetration into East Asia saw a peak during the Second Opium War (185... more Nineteenth-century Western penetration into East Asia saw a peak during the Second Opium War (1856-1860) when British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. 1 The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of government of the Chinese Emperor to the 1 Such as the right to establish diplomate legation in Beijing, to extend trade and travel rights and to legalise the Opium trade (Britain). The Second Opium War started in late 1856 with the attack of Guangzhou and ended on 24 October 1860 with the signing of the Convention of Beijing. For a very concise summary of the war see: Greg M. Thomas, The Looting of Yuanming and the Translation of Chinese Art in Europe,
During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privile... more During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of government of the Chinese Emperor to the northwest of the Chinese capital. Thousands of these objects – figures up to over a million have been suggested – were brought to Europe and are today in Western museums and private collections. Little is known about the quantity of objects that reached Europe, about the market mechanisms in the West, the collectors that purchased the artefacts from the Summer Palace, as well as the paths taken by the objects in the years after 1860: which objects arrived in Europe? In whose hands were they at what time? When did they change hands? Where are they today? While it is difficult to trace the marketing of the artefacts sold through dealers – due to the scarcity of available archives –, public auction sales are easier ...
Mäzenatentum als Mittel politischer Selbstdarstellung 1653–1661, 2011
Mäzenatentum als Mittel politischer Selbstdarstellung 1653–1661, 2011
Deutschland Postkolonial, 2018
As the issue of the place of the so-called « Benin Bronzes » in German collections reaches a satu... more As the issue of the place of the so-called « Benin Bronzes » in German collections reaches a saturation point in terms of media coverage , this article considers this proliferation of interest in relation to the comparative silence that surrounds other important cases of military activities that lead to acquisitions of important holdings in extra-European collections. By considering the trajectories of Benin bronzes alongside those of objects looted in China in the nineteenth and early twentieth century we intend to discuss the imbalance between contemporary representations of these histories and the archival reality of understanding the singular destinies of objects (pieces of art, craftsmanship, objects of worship and ancestral heirlooms) set into motion by the « small wars » of the colonial era.
Acquiring Cultures. Histories of World Art on Western Markets, 2018
During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privile... more During the Second Opium War (1856-1860), British and French troops fought to expand their privileges in China. The war ended in Beijing in October 1860 with the looting and burning of the Yuanmingyuan, one of the official seats of the government of the Chinese Emperor to the northwest of the Chinese capital. Thousands of these objects - figures up to over a million have been suggested - were brought to Europe and are today in Western museums and private collections. While it is difficult to trace the marketing of the artefacts sold through dealers - due to the scarcity of available archives - public auction sales are easier to access. This paper provides a systematic review of all Parisian sales between 1861 and 1869 in which artefacts from the Imperial Summer Palace were sold. The corresponding catalogues were matched with the minutes of the sales - a specifically French source providing unique information on sellers, buyers and prices of the sold objets.
The complete dataset with the description of artefacts and protagonists is available online :
Léa Saint-Raymond, "The Yuanmingyuan Loot at Parisian Auctions in the 1860s : Artefacts, Hammer Prices, Sellers and Purchasers", Harvard Dataverse, 2018, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0COI5J
Conference 22.-23.2.2024 Munich, Museum Fünf Kontinente
International Symposium Bauakademie | Berlin 13.-15.10.2016
Journal for Art Market Studies, Issue on "Asian Art: Markets, Provenance, History", 2018
Guest Editors of the Journal for Art Market Studies, volume 2, number 3: Alexander Hofmann and Ch... more Guest Editors of the Journal for Art Market Studies, volume 2, number 3: Alexander Hofmann and Christine Howald.
Over the centuries, Western connoisseurs honed a fascination for objects from Asia, Africa, the A... more Over the centuries, Western connoisseurs honed a fascination for objects from Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, many of which are part of public and private collections today. What trajectories did they follow, how were they acquired and dispersed? With the era of European expansion, a growing number of extra-European artefacts entered Western markets. Some were legally bought, others were plundered or appropriated in asymmetric power contexts during the colonial era. Subsequently, new market structures emerged in response to European and North American demands. This book provides insights into the methods and places of exchange, networks, prices, expertise, and valuation concepts, as well as the transfer of these artefacts. It focuses on interrelations and connections between art markets and collectors from the late modern period through to the mid-twentieth century.