CHINESE ART APPRAISER
Dr. Wei Yang, Ph.D. in Chinese Art & Tibetan Art, specializes in Asian art consultation and appraisal. She possesses a set of unique skills and hand-on working experience unmatched in the field. Dr. Yang earned a B.A. in art history in 1997 and M.A. in Asian Art in 1998 from Smith College (Northampton, MA), and a Ph.D. in Chinese art history in 2005 from Northwestern University (Evanston, ILL), and a certificate of Fine Art and Decorative Arts in 2010 from Pratt Institute (New York). She received the graduate training on the study and research of Japanese and Korean fine arts, literati painting and Buddhist art. Her doctoral training focused on the connoisseurship of Chinese art, art critism and evaluation of classical Chinese painting and calligraphy. Her research interest covers the appreciation of Chinese craftsmanship and evaluation of Chinese ceramics, jade and Buddhist art. Dr. Yang has served as Asian Art Consultant and Appraiser, Review Appraiser and Expert Witness for litigation since 2005.
Dr. Yang is lifelong educator and writer (Books by Wei Yang).
Dr. Yang brings integrity, professional competence and objectivity in multiple fields, and impartiality to her work. She has served as independent Asian Art Appraiser with a focus on Chinese art, Review Appraiser and Expert Witness for litigation since 2005.
TRAINED CHINESE ART HISTORIAN
-Ph.D. in Chinese Art & Tibetan Art
After receiving a B.A. in art history in 1997 and a M.A. in Asian Art in 1998 from Smith College (Northampton, MA), Wei Yang continued her study on Chinese art by earning a Ph.D. in Chinese art and Tibetan Art in 2005 from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). Her doctoral training focused on classical Chinese painting and calligraphy of the 10th to 14th centuries and Tibetan Ritual Paintings. She has conducted extensive field work across Asia, providing her invaluable hands-on research experience with Asian art. She extended her range of expertise from art history to art appraisal by shifting her research from Chinese art techniques and connoisseurship to the trends of art market and art economics. Dr. Yang possesses the language skills fundamental to the understanding of Asian art and different traditions and aesthetics. She reads classical and modern Chinese, Japanese and some Tibetan. She works regularly with traditional Chinese scripts (standard, clerical, semi-cursive, cursive and carving) used most frequently in classical Chinese painting and calligraphy. Before becoming a professional art appraiser, Dr. Yang served for 15 years in the education division of the Dunhuang Academy based at the Mogao Caves (Gansu, China), the largest repository of Buddhist art in the world, and worked for several years as Chinese art bibliographer at the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.
CREDIBLE ASIAN ART APPRAISER
-Competence, Objectivity and Credibility
Wei Yang is an independent art appraiser, serving her clients in compliance with the highest professional standards and the code of ethics. In 2008 she earned a certificate of Fine and Decorative Art Appraisal from Pratt Institute in New York after completing coursework on principles, methodologies, legal aspects and report writing. She was certified in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). She earned the designation of Accredited Senior Appraiser in Asian art (ASA, 2010-2025) after passing expertise tests on Asian art and appraisers’ code of ethics; to achieve professional excellence, she earned a second designation of Accredited Senior Appraiser in Appraisal Review and Management in Personal Property (ARM, 2017-2025) from the American Society of Appraisers. Over the past twenty-five years, Dr. Yang has offered appraisal services in Asian art with a concentration on Chinese art. She has conducted reviews of appraisals prepared by other appraisers to assist in insurance settlements and taxation litigation.
CHINESE ART EXPERT WITNESS
-Appraisal Reviewer, Consulting & Testifying Expert
Wei Yang serves regularly as art expert witness for litigations concerning Chinese art since 2015. She has offered professional opinions in the form of appraisal reviews on the quality of appraisals prepared by other appraisers and the reliability of proposed value conclusions. She has discussed many issues concerning the integrity of professional appraisal services, such as the impact of authenticity on value, the unreliable approach to the most appropriate marketplace, flawed appraisal methodologies and cherry-picked sales data. She has prepared expert appraisals of Chinese art for charitable donation, capital gains, estate taxation and distribution of estates. She has produced appraisal review reports, research reports, deposition reports and rebuttal reports for court proceedings. She has served as testifying expert witness on authentication and originality of classical Chinese paintings, qualitative ranking criteria, appraisal methodologies for rare Chinese art works and the impact of unqualified comparables on fair market value conclusions.
AUTHOR & EDUCATOR
-On Chinese Art Connoisseurship & Valuation
Wei Yang is an independent Chinese art historian and Asian art appraiser with a special interest in connoisseurship of original Chinese painting methods and techniques and new methods after the old, art criticism and valuation of Chinese fine arts. Over 40 years, her career has spanned art education, docotoral research in museums and in the field, teaching and research in academia, qualification as professional art appraiser, expert witness and author. Dr. Yang's recent publications (Books by Wei Yang ) include: Wei Yang’s Guide to Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (two volumes, Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 2022), a comprehensive English reference book for Chinese art professionals, collectors and the general public; "Five Mistakes in Appraising Premodern Chinese Paintings," ARM E-Journal 5, no. 1 (2021): 58-62; a memoir (in Chinese), Desert Bloom (Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, 2020). She is now wrapping up her next two reference books, on Chinese ceramics and Chinese jade.
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