A collection of Chairman Mao's statues was displayed to the public in Sichuan Province exhibition center yesterday to commemorate the 107th birthday of the great Chinese leader.

107 items of Mao's busts and statues, which cost six months' preparatory work, were collected from more than 20 mainland China cities.

Among them was China's biggest set of pure gold statue, which is 15 centimeters tall and weighs 220 grams.

An emerald basso-relievo featuring the hands-shaking between Mao Zedong and another Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, was outstanding among the collectives. Experts evaluated the artwork at 10,000 yuan (US$1,200).

(Eastday.com 12/26/2000)