Chinese art takes long march home from US museums
Por Mark Magnier — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement US-China relations China Chinese art takes long march home from US museums
Works amassed by America’s Gilded Age tycoons are returning to Chinese hands as wealthy collectors reshape a centuries-old art trade
6 -MIN READ 6 -MIN Listen
Mark Magnier in New York Published: 10:00pm, 3 Oct 2026 Updated: 10:03pm, 3 Oct 2026
Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas.
It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Christie’s glossy Chinese sale catalogue and online advertising. But bidding soon resumes with a realised price of US$2.05 million, the sale’s top porcelain result.
The bowl is among over 100 items from the Art Institute of Chicago, part of a broader generational transition as rarefied relics amassed by 19th century American Gilded Age “robber barons” return to Chinese hands after gathering dust for more than a century in Western museums. Then it is the turn of lot 1032, an archaistic zun-form vase once owned by finance magnate Charles Schwab. “They’re off and running,” says Banner, before a Chinese man snags it for US$40,960. Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x 1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:00 00:00 1x AI-generated voice