ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the risks German art dealers, collectors, and connoisseurs of Asian art identified during the first half of the twentieth century in their attempts to expand their collections and gain access to the Japanese and Chinese art markets. Their commercial activities were intrinsically linked to the concepts of colonialism and racism. Japanese and Chinese art objects held special importance because they were particularly coveted by German dealers, cultural institutions, and collectors in the decades after 1900. The shifting outlook of Germany's art dealers and collectors between 1900 and 1940 could be seen in both countries: Japan transformed into an imperial rival, its dealers and art market becoming a source for concern in the form of overpriced, inferior and fraudulent objects, while China became a risky, disputed market for objects associated with Germany's imperial ambitions. In both cases, the highly sophisticated regional art markets, which had existed for centuries in local, national and transnational structures were disregarded. At best, German dealers and collectors treated them as necessary evils, at worst as part of the supposed risk and security issues generally attributed to acquisition in Asia.
