Details
Written from the perspective of a collector, this exceptionally well illustrated book presents some 340 jade carvings from the Hongshan culture of Neolithic China. As well as examining the iconography of Hongshan art, and celebrating the workmanship, David Anderson also considers questions of authentification in detail (proposing a revised view of the differing effects of weathering), and in particular discusses the nature of the antiquities trade and illegal excavation in China. He comes down firmly in favour of the private collector, condemning both the UNESCO and UNIDROIT conventions and western archaeologists as ineffective and unrealistic.