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China curator replaced
stolen masters with forgeries

A man in China has admitted stealing more than 140

paintings by Chinese masters from a university and
replacing them with his own forgeries.
Xiao Yuan, 57, a curator at Guangzhou Academy of
Fine Arts in southern China, sold 125 of the exhibits
for more than 34m Yuan (£4m, $6m).
In his defense, he told Guangzhou People›s Intermedi-
ate Court there were already fakes in the storeroom
when he started work there. He will be sentenced later.
Xiao, who had a key to the university storeroom, sub-
stituted famous works by masters including Zhu Da,
Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian for two years from 2004.
He told the court that during this time he was surprised
to find his own fakes were being stolen and replaced
with yet more copies. “I realized someone else had
replaced my paintings with their own because I could
clearly discern that their works were terribly bad,»
he said.
He said he did not know who had replaced his fakes,
but that students and professors could take out paint-
ings in the same way as they could borrow library
books. Between 2004 and 2011 he sold 125 paintings,
using the proceeds to buy property and other paintings.
The 18 others he stole are estimated to be worth more
than 70m Yuan, prosecutors said. The stolen works
included Rock and Birds by 17th-Century painter and
calligrapher Zhu Da.
Xiao, who left the university in 2010 when allegations

were taken to the police, pleaded guilty to a
corruption charge. He apologized but
took issue with some of the details
of the prosecution.
In 2012 Chinese news agency
Xinhua reported that art forgery
was «increasingly rampant» in
the country. That year it became
the world›s largest market for art
and antiques, according to the Eu-
ropean Fine Art Foundation.

12 INTERNATIONAL Wednesday, July 22 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER