The National Museum of China has acquired an iconic portrait of
late leader Mao Zedong after the plans to auction it last spring
were called off under increasing pressure.
Zhang Bai, deputy director of the State Administration of
Cultural Heritage, said the portrait would be permanently preserved
in the National Museum. The purchase was co-financed by the
administration and the National Museum.
In its spring auction season this year Beijing Huachen Auction
Co had planned to sell the painting that once hung above Beijing's
Tian'anmen Rostrum in the 1950s and 1960s, but canceled the
proposed sale following "advice from the government" and public
criticism.
Mei Ligang, a spokesman with the Beijing Auction House, said
this May that the sale would be open to both Chinese and foreign
bidders.
The proposed plan sparked intense on-line criticism with
Internet users arguing the portrait was a national treasure and
should not be sold. "The portrait is worth far more than its
monetary value in terms of art and history," said Chen Lusheng, a
researcher from the China National Museum of Fine Arts.
The portrait, 91 centimeters high and 68.5 centimeters wide, was
painted in the 1950s by artist Zhang Zhenshi, who was born in 1914
and died in 1992. In 1950, he was among more than 30 painters from
around the country invited to create a new portrait of Mao to mark
the first anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Posters of
the work were made and circulated throughout the country.
The painting, owned by a Chinese American, was expected to fetch
about 1-1.2 million yuan (US$126,445-151,734) at auction, the
Beijing News reported yesterday.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2006)