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Prosecutors used sculptures depicting the Chinese Communist Party founder repenting and aiming fire at Jesus in evidence.

Gao Zhen, the older of the New York-based Gao Brothers duo (photo courtesy 小柯)

The 70-year-old Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen has been sentenced to three years in prison for his sculptures of communist revolutionary and leader Mao Zedong. The verdict was issued in the Sanhe City People's Court in Hebei Province on Tuesday, August 25, as reported by the New York Times. 

The three-year sentence falls under an amendment passed by People’s Republic of China (PRC) leader Xi Jinping in 2021, which prohibits any perceived slander of China's deemed heroes and martyrs. Prosecutors pointed to sculptures created between 2005 and 2009, which include depictions of the communist leader repenting, or aiming fire at Jesus. Another is an enlarged bust of Mao with a cartoonish nose and enlarged breasts.

The New York-based artist works with his younger brother Gao Qiang under the moniker “Gao Brothers.” The two are known for producing satirical and critical sculptures of the PRC founder and former Chinese Communist Party Chairman, including in the Miss Mao series, which they made from 2006 to 2009. The duo was the subject of a major retrospective from 2010 to 2011 at the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City entitled Grandeur and Catharsis. 

Zhen was arrested during a family visit to Hubei province in August 2024, marking the beginning of a tedious legal ordeal that other Chinese artists, such as Ai Weiwei and Guo Gai, have faced in recent years. Chinese officials not only ignored international protests and artist petitions surrounding Zhen’s arrest, but have continued to block his wife and son from leaving the country. 

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