Shaping the Collections: Dealers and Collectors of Asian Art
Asian Art Provenance Connections Project
Provenance research at the National Museum of Asian Art encompasses research into ownership, collecting, and art market histories. In addition to tracing the history of one object at a time, our researchers investigate the sources of the works of art in our collections. Sources take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, private donors and collectors, auction houses, galleries, and dealers. In turn, these individuals and businesses procured their collections from other sources around the world. It is the provenance researcher’s job to identify an object’s journey across time and space, from its creation to its arrival at the museum, tracing its connection to different individuals.
This page presents biographies of dealers and collectors who were instrumental in shaping the collections of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Each biography can be accessed as a PDF document. Collection objects and archival materials associated with each individual collector and dealer are also linked. Researchers update existing documents and write new biographies when they uncover new information.
This resource, which began in 2016, is generously funded by the David Berg Foundation.
Diedrich Abbes (pdf)
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Wiliam Cleverly Alexander (pdf)
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George Findlay Andrew (pdf)
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Abel William Bahr (pdf)
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Peter Johannes Bahr (pdf)
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Siegfried Bing (pdf)
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Carl Whiting Bishop (pdf)
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Bluett and Sons (pdf)
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Alice Boney (pdf)
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Edward Chow (pdf)
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Thomas Benedict Clarke (pdf)
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Charles Anderson Dana (pdf)
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David David-Weill (pdf)
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Duanfang (pdf)
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Gustav Ecke (pdf)
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Eskenazi Ltd. (pdf)
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George Aristedes Eumorfopoulos (pdf)
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Ernest Fenollosa (pdf)
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John C. Ferguson (pdf)
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Charles Lang Freer (pdf)
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Leonard Gow (pdf)
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Desmond Gure (pdf)
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Isaac Taylor Headland (pdf)
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Arthur Lonsdale Hetherington (pdf)
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Mrs. Christian R. Holmes (pdf)
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Jun Tsei Tai (pdf)
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Orvar Karlbeck (pdf)
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Dikran Kelekian (pdf)
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Thomas Joseph Larkin (pdf)
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Berthold Laufer (pdf)
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John Ellerton Lodge (pdf)
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C.T. Loo (pdf)
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Henry Gurdon Marquand (pdf)
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Agnes Meyer (pdf)
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Eugene Meyer (pdf)
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Percival David Foundation for Chinese Art (pdf)
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Friedrich Perzynski (pdf)
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James Marshall Plumer (pdf)
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John Alexander Pope (pdf)
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Arthur M. Sackler (pdf)
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Paul Singer (pdf)
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John Sparks (pdf)
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Julius Spier (pdf)
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Spink and Son (pdf)
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Harold Stern (pdf)
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Tonying and Company (pdf)
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Henri Albert Van Oort (pdf)
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Albert von Le Coq (pdf)
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Archibald Gibson Wenley (pdf)
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Zhang Daqian (pdf)
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Zhang Naiji (pdf)
Related Freer and Sackler collections
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The National Museum of Asian Art provides this information for educational purposes only. The Museum does not endorse commercial entities or their products. The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery welcome information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.
