individual blog 6---Zodiac statue replicas---part 2

 

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Ai+Weiwei+recreates+stolen+bronzes+in+Brazil/21552 

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist that recreates bronzes that were stolen from an art museum in the 1860 from Summer Palace in Beijing. He created these replicas in Brazil. He made replicas of 12 zodiac statues. This guy is good to be able to create replicas. These replicas were put on display. This display will be featured in many places, but they will be on display in London in 2012. Ai hopes that the creation of the statues will help in the ongoing investigation of the missing statues. Only seven of the original zodiac statues have been recovered. There are six more still out there. There is no exact documentation on how these statues look like. So the artist made the replicas look like what he imagined the remainder of the zodiac statues would look like. Each of the replicas is valued at $500,000. Ai is a smart person to make these replicas of the statues. It was an idea that would bring him money, and also bring him more fame. That is a great amount of money. The Summer Palace owners should continue their hope that the remainder of the zodiac statues will be found and returned to them. It has been over 150 years since these statues have been stolen. The main idea of the article is that Ai created these original zodiac figures-like statues to help the Beijing government get their statues and also make money. This article reminds me of what we discussed in class about the pharaoh pyramid and other places in Egypt being raided and robbed by different people. Some of the historical artifacts may never be found. The sculptures help us see the form of art the convention that the artist did them according to. The replicas will help, but the originals are better. I wish them good luck finding the remainder of the six statues. The second picture is thought to be an image of the original. The first image is of the replicas.