China buys Mao portrait after canceling auction

China's National Museum has bought a portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), China's founding communist leader, after a public auction was called off under government pressure, a news report said yesterday.

The portrait served as a model for paintings of Mao that hung above Tiananmen Square in central Beijing in the 1960s and 1970s.

The painting had been expected to fetch 1 million to 1.2 million yuan (US$120,000 to US$150,000) when its Chinese-American owner tried to sell it in June at a Beijing auction. But the government intervened, possibly prompted by the auction house's announcement that foreigners would be allowed to bid.

The National Museum's purchase was financed by the museum and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It didn't give the price.