ASAHI WEEKLY: TOKYO, JAPAN SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2007 By Matthias Ley..
MUNDY HAS A SHARP EYE FOR ASIA'S MOST EXOTIC
ANTIQUES
A crisp autumn morning in
Kyoto. It is just after 5 a.m.,
and the first rays of the morning
sun are bathing the top of the
pagoda of Toji Temple in a golden
light.
Below, on the usually tranquil
temple grounds, dealers are setting
up their stalls and shops for the
monthly flea market.
American antique dealer Rhett
Mundy, 49, sporting his trademark
GI-style haircut and leather jacket,
is already moving quickly from stall
to stall, scanning today’s offerings
with hawkish eyes. He’s already got
some temple bells, a Meiji period
bronze vase and a large Shigaraki
frog from the early Showa period.
Now, near the north gate, he spots
a pair of kitsune, Shinto shrine foxes.
He swiftly circles in on them, pulls
out some cash, talks to the vendor
and closes the deal.
“A great buy,” Mundy smiles happily.
“My customers will love them.”
Mundy’s love affair with Asian, and
especially Japanese antiques, started
way back in the early 1980s.
He was working then in Tokyo’s
Meguro Ward as an English teacher.
In his free time, he visited shops and
bought used kimonos and other
items, “as many as I could carry,” he
recalls. After completing his time as
a teacher, he traveled throughout
Asia, buying more antiques along the
way. Upon returning home to his
native Boston,“I sold everything very
quickly,” Mundy says.“That was the
beginning of my antiques-dealing
business.”
In 1986 he traveled to Japan and
Asia again, and later that year he
opened his first antique shop in
Boston, Asia Galleries. In 2000 he
moved his business to San Francisco.
“I always had a passion for traveling
and arts,”Mundy says.“I had visited
the Louvre in Paris and other
museums before.
“But the beauty of Asian traditional
art objects simply blew me
away. I studied and learned about
Asian arts from books, other dealers
or collectors like some Harvard professors
who were customers of mine.”
Quickly he gained a reputation for
finding and getting valuable items
from very remote areas, from the
tropical jungles of Myanmar to the
snow-capped Himalayas.
During these travels, he has to
fight off diseases such as malaria or
dengue fever, deal with corrupt customs
officials, nurture his network of
contacts and arrange the shipments
of his goods in containers back to the
U.S.
Twice he has been arrested, in
Nepal and by Myanmarese rebels
for entering their territory illegally,
but someone from the Thai side of
the border was sent in and negotiated
his release. No wonder then,
that a magazine called Mundy the
“Indiana Jones of Asian antique
buying.”
Mundy, however, is very strict
about the sources of his antiques.
..........
“I never buy stolen goods,” he confirms.
“Most museums are full of
stolen artifacts,” he says, so he buys
directly from the source, often from
monks, or auctions in Japan. His
most favorite item is a nearly 3-
meter tall black-faced Buddha
statue from Myanmar, made of teakwood
covered with black lacquer.
“This statue had some damages at
the feet,” Mundy explains, “so the
monks decided to sell it to me.”
Actress Gillian Anderson of “X-Files”
fame and rock musician Carlos
Santana were both interested in this
Buddha, but so far the item remains
on display in his warehouse and on
his Web page.
The secret to his success, Mundy
says, is “the ability to translate your
passion and eye for beautiful and old
treasures into someone else’s passion,
so they will buy them.You have
to know what you are buying, that is
the trick.”
Since opening his shop in 1986, he
spends six months each year on the
road in 15 Asian countries buying,
the other six months selling his
pieces to museums, antique shops
and collectors.
Asia Galleries specializes in highend
Buddhist artifacts and Asian
antiques, “with more and more
emphasis on Japan,”Mundy explains.
“Kyoto is a great place to relax after
the hard travels in Asia, and is my
first choice to be in the world. It is so
easy here, the food is great, it is safe
and has a great business environment,”
Mundy says. “As I have to
take care of my customers in the U.S.,
so I cannot live permanently here.”
For a couple of years he has owned
a four-story warehouse on Imadegawa
Street, and he just bought a
second huge warehouse in Yase a
short drive away. Although he has
just shipped a container full of
Buddha statues, screens and textiles
to San Francisco, the warehouse is
still full of furniture.
“This one will ship to Boston soon,”
Mundy says. “I still have many customers
there, so I plan to make an
annual month-long show of my antiques there, too.”
....Excerpt from Christian Science Monitor's article "Orient Expression" August 23 2000.

WATCH OUT FOR FAKES

"I'm in Asia seven months a year and see entire businesses that just make fakes,"says Mr Mundy."There is a huge market for fakes:They are in auctions and antique stores and everywhere."

Mundy and other reputable dealers are trying to educate customers on how to spot a forgery."They should get a 100 percent guarantee from the original buyer [so] they can get their money back if it's not as old as they say it is."

Excerpt from The Christian Science Monitor, 03/03/97

For the past 13 years, owner Rhett Mundy has combed Asia's jungles
and villages. Mundy's travels have taken him from the jungles of Java to the Himalayas of Nepal and the bustling markets of China and Japan. All he does is shop, ship, and sell.

His bulging 10,000 square feet warehouse in Boston's Brighton neighborhood is filled with ornate furniture, ancient Japanese chests, vivid silk kimonos, sinuous dancing maidens, and exotic handicrafts. A walk through the aisles is an adventure itself, occasionally bringing you face to face with a seven-foot demon or a meditative monk.

A few times a year, Mundy heads off to Asia with a fat wallet and an open plane ticket. Unlike some of his competition, Mundy buys at the source, not from the middleman antiques dealer in Bangkok or Kyoto, where reproductions and authentic pieces mingle and meld.

Mundy has also developed a network of families throughout Southeast Asia who barter on his behalf. In return, Mundy shares a percentage of his profits with them. Recently he was buying old shadow puppets made of water buffalo hide. One by one, family elders visited the tall, blond young man, bringing boxes of mythical warriors, painted maidens, and fierce gods that had entertained villagers for years. He took the puppets, they took the money, and both sides left grinning.

"With that money, they can get whole new puppet boxes and keep the art alive. I'll deal in anything," he says, patting the head of a 300-year-old Chinese horse, "but I won't touch living temples where worshippers still gather."

Sometimes Mundy rushes off for a war-zone auction in Cambodia and Burma, where the thunder of artillery can be heard in the distant hills. Here, the sellers might be military commanders who gather up the spoils of war from the territories they conquer. Chinese, Thai, and occasionally American collectors gather there and place their bids.

Mr. Mundy is one of the regulars. While he prefers dealing with rebel
groups, even the war spoils of a conquering despot are worth a look.

"The piece I buy is either going to rot in the jungle or it will be burned by the military. [If I purchase it], it's preserved for life."

Here in the US, Mundy's customers range from casual collectors to Asian refugees.

"I sold a Buddha to some Vietnamese immigrants in Lynn, Massachusetts, and they're using it in their new temple. Same thing with the Laotian community in Lowell," he says. "It's cool to be able to help out like that."

Mundy learned the trade by talking with collectors and museum experts, while developing his own knowledge and tastes. For himself, he collects small silk geisha dolls and bronze statues of Quanyin, the Chinese goddess of compassion and mercy. For his customers, Mundy has brought back items as large as an eight-foot stone Buddha or, in one case, an entire wedding hall from Kunming, China, or trinkets as small as a set of finger cymbals.

"The key is to buy with your eyes and sell what you love. If you really love a piece, you can sell it," he says. "You can explain what makes that piece special to the customer. And they'll love it forever."

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