Gia Tri's painting fetches over US$99,000 at auction

Nguyen Gia Tri's paintings proposed to be national treasure 

The painting titled Spring Garden of North, Central and South by Nguyen Gia Tri has been displayed at the HCM City’s Fine Arts Museum. — Photo toquoc.vn

The minister on Tuesday urged the Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition, Culture Heritage Department and the Viet Nam Museum of Fine Arts to examine the quality of the painting titled Spring Garden of North, Central and South stored at the HCM City’s Fine Arts Museum.

The agencies were told to report to the minister by May 5.

The order was made after reports surfaced that the painting has been seriously damaged after being cleaned days ago by the museum’s staff.

The painting was drawn from 1969 and completed in 1989.

The painting features the spring atmosphere and images of young women representing three regions of the country, who are in traditional long dress on the way to spring festival. The painting also depicts pagodas, trees and spring flowers.

The painting has been judged by experts to include all the advancements of lacquer artists in half a century,.

In 1991, the painting was bought by HCM City’s People’s Committee at the price of US$100,000 and given as a gift to the HCM City’s Fine Arts Museum.

The painting has recently been damaged by the weather and poor preservation conditions.

Painter Trí graduated from the Indochina Fine Arts College in 1936, and was a leading painter in setting a new style for traditional lacquer art.

He made considerable contributions to bring Vietnamese art of lacquer to a new height with the combination of Vietnamese traditional culture with traditional paint and western academic painting style.

In 1989, the painter was officially recognised as a contemporary painter making good contributions to establishing Vietnamese modern fine arts by the culture ministry. — VNS