CHINESE ART FOCUS
-Ph.D. in Chinese Art & Tibetan Art
Wei Yang, Ph.D., provides art expert witness services for litigation concerning Chinese art, with a concentration on classical Chinese painting and calligraphy (prior to 1949). As an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Asian Art with a concentration on Chinese art, Dr. Yang has prepared appraisals of most forms of Asian art and offered opinions on art authenticity and valuation for insurance and taxation litigation. As an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Appraisal Review and Management of Personal Property (ARM-PP), she has identified, documented and explained errors and omissions in appraisal reports she has reviewed, ranging from irrelevant scope of work to inadequate explanation of research, flawed methodology, insufficient data selection, problematic treatment of provenance, use of unqualified comparables and unreasonable value conclusions. Her strengths are based on her expertise in Chinese aesthetics and art criticism, painting technique, visual aesthetics, and market economics. Dr. Yang has served as Chinese art appraisal expert witness, consulting expert and testifying expert witness for litigations concerning insurance settlements and taxation.
RECENT EXPERT WITNESS EXPERIENCE
-Appraisal Expert, Consulting Expert and Testifying Expert
Chinese Art expert: Dr. Wei Yang has reviewed case files, identified issues and proposed solutions
Expert Appraiser & Appraisal Reviewer: Wei Yang has prepared appraisals of Asian art for insurance, capital gains, estate and income taxation, and written appraisal review reports on the credibility and USPAP-compliance of appraisals
Consulting expert witness: Wei Yang has reviewed case materials, prepared preliminary reviews and research reports, identified weaknesses in argument, analyzed opposing expert’s credentials and research holes in appraisal reports, assessed adequacy of appraisal methodology, accuracy of data, completeness of scope of work and reasonableness of value conclusion in light of USPAP
Testifying expert witness: Wei Yang has researched and prepared appraisal reports and rebuttal reports and offered testimony at deposition and in court
QUALIFICATIONS
-Ph.D. in Chinese Art, Accredited Senior Appraisal in Asian Art & Appraisal Review
Expert in Chinese art: Wei Yang holds a B.A. (1997) in art history and M.A. degree (1998) in Asian art from Smith College (Northampton, MA); earned a Ph.D. (2005) in Chinese art and Tibetan art from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), with a focus on Chinese painting and calligraphy from the 10th to 19th centuries; possesses language skills in Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan; reads a range of Chinese classical scripts used in Chinese painting and calligraphy; and has conducted research on Chinese and Asian art in museums and field sites in China, Tibet, Korea, Mongolia, southeast Asia, central Asia, Europe, and North America
Certification in Art Appraisal: Wei Yang earned a certificate of Fine Art and Decorative Arts Appraisal from Pratt Institute (NY) in 2009, a designation of Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Asian Art in 2010 from American Society of Appraisers, a certificate in Chinese Painting Mounting and Restoration from the Mounting and Restoration Academy (Jinan, Shandong) in 2011, and a second designation as Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in Appraisal Review and Management in personal property (ARM-PP) in 2017 from American Society of Appraisers
AUTHOR & EDUCATOR
On Chinese Art Connoisseurship & Valuation
Wei Yang published an English reference book on the connoisseurship and valuation of Chinese art, Wei Yang’s Guide to Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (2 volumes, Tianjin: Nankai University Press) in 2022; "Five Mistakes in Appraising Premodern Chinese Paintings," ARM E-Journal 5, no. 1 (2021): 58:62; a memoir (in Chinese), Desert Bloom 沙棗花的故事 (Beijing: Beijing Publishing House) in 2021; is now completing two further reference books, Wei Yang’s Guide to Chinese Ceramics and Wei Yang’s Guide to Chinese Jade; worked 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; served as Chinese art bibliographer at the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University; and has taught in universities and lectured to professional societies worldwide.
