ART

In another move against avant-garde art exhibits in Beijing, Chinese police have raided a controversial exhibition of nude paintings influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, artists told Reuters on Sunday. The raid came just days after a controversial exhibition of nude paintings in Beijing’s national art gallery was closed down for the second time by police. Uniformed policemen confiscated six paintings from the Beijing Artists Gallery on Saturday evening and questioned artist Cao Yong about their content, a witness said. The exhibition had been on display to the public for five days and was being packed up when the police arrived. Earlier Saturday, officials from the legal department of Beijing’s cultural office visited Cao’s exhibition to tell him that members of the public had complained about his work. (One painting shows a heap of naked women below Buddhist monk-like figures, and another depicts a woman dragging two men out of a fire by their genitalia.)