A ceremony was held on November 4 in the China Art Gallery at which Wu Guanzhong, the well-respected Chinese painter, donated 10 of his best works in recent years to the state.

Wu went to study in France in the mid 1940s and returned home after the founding of the new China. Over the past 50 years, he has continued to practise western painting and traditional Chinese painting to explore new ways of merging the two. Wu is one of the most influential Chinese painters of the twentieth century.

The ceremony, which also inaugurated an exhibition of Wu's works, was attended by Li Ruihuan, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and famous artists from home and abroad as well some foreign diplomats.