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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)