An artist made scathing sculptures of Mao over a decade ago. Now, he’s detained for slandering China’s heroes, family says

Hong Kong CNN —

A prominent Chinese artist known for his scathing political critiques of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution has been detained in China, according to his brother and artistic partner.

Gao Zhen, 68, was detained last week in a police raid on his art studio on the outskirts of Beijing on suspicion of slandering China’s “heroes and martyrs,” his younger brother Gao Qiang told CNN Sunday in an email from New York. The criminal offense, introduced in 2021, is punishable by up to three years in prison.

The public security bureau that Gao Qiang said had detained his brother, in Hebei province’s Sanhe city, declined to comment.

At the height of their careers, the Gao Brothers created provocative sculptures of Mao in a country notoriously sensitive about its former ruler’s legacy. But that was well over a decade ago — during a relatively liberal era for artistic expression before China took an authoritarian turn under leader Xi Jinping.

Now, some of those older works have been seized by police as evidence against Gao Zhen, his brother said.

They include “Mao’s Guilt,” a life-size bronze cast created in 2009 that depicts the former Chinese Communist Party leader kneeling, hand on heart, in repentance; “The Execution of Christ,” created that same year, which features a firing squad of life-sized Chairman Maos pointing their bayoneted rifles at Jesus; and a collection of busts named “Miss Mao,” which come in various sizes and colors, sporting a Pinocchio-like nose and large, naked breasts.

The avant-garde artists’ latest works had not been as politically sensitive or explicitly critical of Chinese leaders, their friends say. Gao Zhen had lived a quiet life in China and spent most days in his studio prior to