So finally, we have a resolution to the international dispute over two Chinese bronze heads that sold last week as part of Yves Saint Laurent’s estate sale. The statues, that Beijing claims were looted from China nearly 150 years ago by foreign aggressors, were sold to a Chinese bidder Cai Mingchao, who paid $40 million […]

Nothing sweetens an ongoing cultural property dispute like a little blackmail. As I wrote about last week, two bronze heads were plundered from Beijing’s Summer Palace over 150 years ago, and somehow ended up in the possession of Yves Saint Laurent, whose art collection is going under the hammer this week in Paris. China has […]

For days now, China has protested the sale of two bronze statues on the block at a Christie’s auction this week in Paris. The two bronzes in question were reportedly looted from the Summer Palace in during the Second Opium War in 1860 and ended up in the hands of the late Yves Saint […]

The great English-language website chinaSMACK posted the best photoshopped images from last week’s TVCC building fire at CCTV headquarters. Since Beijing narrowly avoided a massive tragedy with this one, it seems okay to laugh at the explosion of photoshop creativity that can only be found on the Chinese blogosphere. Here’s my favorite:

Go to chinaSMACK […]

A friend sent me these photos of the complete Shanghai cityscape made only of materials that can be found at a craps table. Unlike similar endeavors, like the Beijing Olympic village made of Legos, which was purely a gimmick, it seems this type of model art is now recognized as art, as this display of […]

A new print ad for French automaker Citroen has been pulled from several Spanish newspapers amidst complaints from Chinese netizens over the artsy portrayal of Chairman Mao. As you can see in the image, Citroen modifies the famous likeness of Mao that looms over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, adding a scowl to his face, […]

I don’t mean to be rude, but I can’t really see anything in this painting. But I suppose I’ve never been quite sure as to why the Mona Lisa is the Western world’s “Mona Lisa.” It’s a beautiful painting, sure, Leonardo’s magnum opus, but the puzzling facial expression of Lisa Gherardini (think I […]

A live-animal art installation by internationally renown Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping was closed Sunday as animal rights groups deemed the exhibit cruel. The “Theater of the World” exhibit, on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery, featured several live animals such as scorpions, tarantulas, crickets and lizards together in a small cage without sufficient […]

Because really, what could be more Chinese than Martin Luther King and the American black civil rights movement? So Chinese. And not only will the sculptor be Chinese, but the stone as well. China’s all over this one. On Thursday, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts chose China’s “national treasure” Master […]