The BBC World Service interviewed artist and architect Ai Weiwei, whose work will soon appear in the Unilever Series at the Tate Modern.

Chinese civilization – complete with written characters, bronzeware, and cities – may have begun around 4200 BCE, 500 years earlier than scholars originally believed.

The Today Art Museum might be the place to find the next Hot Young Chinese Contemporary Artist as s/he “transitions from student to society.”

What is ink painting the 21st century? Liang Quan responds.

Contemporary calligrapher Jeanyee Wong celebrated her 90th birthday by speaking about her art form.

Taiwanese artist Ju Ming’s “Living World Series” displays his large-scale sculptures in a solo exhibition at Beijing’s National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). Also at NAMOC right now are Zhong Zhangfa’s contemporary ink landscapes and Zhou Shunkai’s history paintings, calligraphy inspired by the Poyang Lake region, and 70+ paintings by Yunan artist Shu Jianxin.

All 1000 shares of China’s first publicly traded art portfolio may have sold out, but Jing Daily believes it is important that these portfolios diversify toward more multi-million-dollar “blue-chip” artists.

“Tradition Transformed” at the Rubin Museum of Art presents the first US exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art.

Imperial treasures on the move, 1937 (Image Credit: Zhuang Ling and the New York Times)

1933: The Palace Museum, officially opened to the public only eight years earlier in 1925, ships approximately 19,000 crates of objects to Nanjing after Japan invades North China.

1937: Days before the Japanese attack and occupation of Nanjing, the objects were divided into three groups and sent to Baxian, Emei and Leshan before being consolidated in Chongqing.

1945: Japan surrenders, and the collection is shipped back to Nanjing.

1948: Chiang Kai-Shek orders most valuable pieces sent to Taiwan; about 20% of the imperial collection arrives there by 1949, including the majority of the paintings.

Telegram to J.P. Morgan offering the collection for sale (New York Times)

The article also reports that in 1913, the Qing imperial family sought to sell the entire imperial collection – “including pearls, bronzes, porcelain, etc.” – to American financier and collector J.P. Morgan for $4m. On March 6, 1913, J.P. Morgan and Co. agent Francis H. McKnight telegrammed New York from Beijing with the news of the offer, expressing the need for a quick response. Unfortunately, Morgan died at the end of the month in Rome, shortly after his staff received the telegram. But imagine – if he had survived and bought the imperial collection, then the greatest works of Chinese art would likely now reside in New York, at the Morgan Library and Museum.

For more on the dispersion of the imperial collection, see The Odyssey of China’s Imperial Art Treasures by David Shambaugh and Jeannette Shambaugh Elliott.

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*This week’s post abstracted the paper I’ll be giving at CAA 2011: “Staging Europe: Theatricality and Painting at the Chinese Imperial Court.”

*Qiao Zhongchang’s (act. late 11th-early 12th centuries) masterpiece Illustration to the Second Prose Poem on the Red Cliff is on view at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art until August 1 – after which, it stays out of public view for five years.

*11th-century Tibetan Buddhist murals uncovered in Qinghai might demonstrate a relationship between Tibetan and Han Buddhist arts.

*The Storm King Art Center unveiled the addition of Zhang Huan’s twelve-ton sculpture Three-Legged Buddha (2007).

*As OffiCina founders Rosario Scarpato and Monica Piccioli navigate between the established definitions of commercial gallery and non-profit institution.

*The latest issue of China Heritage Quarterly focuses on Shanghai in honor of the Expo.

*Bejing’s status as the capital of Chinese art in Asia was starkly outlined against Shanghai’s auction shortcomings and Hong Kong’s perceived lack of local art scene. Given the success of the Ullens collection at Beijing Poly International in the spring, and the foreign art dealers increasingly setting up shop in Beijing, the capital is clearly the epicenter. But Hong Kong shouldn’t get such short shrift, especially after this week’s articles at Art Radar Asia.

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New Resources added this week:

*The “Scholars” page is now Scholars and Students, with the addition of Rachel Marsden’s blog and website.

*The Chinese Contemporary Art page is now up.

*Exhibitions Online: New Chinese Art: Inside Out and 88 MOCCA Museum of Contemporary Chinese Art on the Web

*Museums: Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (Birmingham UK), Chinese Arts Centre (Manchester UK), Museum of East Asian Art (Bath UK)

*Bibliographies: Buddhism in Western Central Asia

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*This week’s website article looked at Chinese art at the 1904 St. Louis Expo.

*On July 1, China adopted new stricter rules for auctioning cultural relics.

*After Expo 2010 Shanghai, the Shanghai Biennale plans a global perspective to draw crowds.

*The Terracotta Army blockbuster show opened at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, as a miniature chocolate version arrive in Taiwan.

*Two Chinese architects are among the finalists for Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and contemporary artist Cao Fei is among the nominees for the Future Generation Art Prize.

*Contemporary Chinese art is the hot new design hook, from vodka bottles to watches.

*Zheng He’s tomb was discovered in Nanjing, minus Zheng He. But his remains weren’t looted: he died in India.

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New Resources added this week:

*Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Photo-Essay on the Great Leap Forward, 1958

*Artists page in the resources. I’m collecting the websites of Chinese artists – please leave a comment below if you have one to add.

*Zhang Xiaogang has been replaced as #1: based on sales from July 2008 through June 2009, Zeng Fanzhi is now the highest-selling contemporary Chinese artist.

*The director of the Princeton University Art Museum argues for the critical role the university museum plays in the university.

*The first European preview of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale took place in London.

*Asian Art in London runs 29 October – 7 November, confirming London’s role as the capital of the Chinese art trade. But the British aren’t the ones buying Chinese art.

*Web addresses can now include Chinese characters: internet regulator Icann approved web addresses in multiple languages.

*The CCTV tower, burned in February by an unlicensed New Year’s fireworks display organized by CCTV itself, has officially been approved for reconstruction.

*Secrets of the Forbidden City opened at Casa dei Carraresi and runs through 9 May 2010. It includes a special section on Matteo Ricci at the Ming Court, with objects and documents from Rome and Ricci’s hometown of Macerata to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Ricci’s 1610 death in Beijing.

*Hong Kong and Singapore are battling it out for the title of Asia’s regional arts hub.

*The new “it” restaurant in my Chinese hometown of Beijing is Capital M, the new Beijing venture by Michelle Garnaut’s M Restaurant Group. Recent local reviews are very positive, and although the New York Times is reserving judgment for the moment, they can’t deny the steady flow of visitors. Located in the newly-restored Qianmen Dajie area, Capital M would be a great place to end up after a long afternoon wandering the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.