An agreement is signed in Paris on Oct 15 for the donation of Zao Wou-Ki's artworks and the establishment of a Zao Wou-Ki Research Center. [Photo/WeChat account: caa1928]

An agreement was signed in Paris on Oct 15 for the donation of Zao Wou-Ki's artworks and the establishment of a Zao Wou-Ki Research Center.

Zao's wife, Francoise Marquet-Zao, and Yann Hendgen, artistic director of the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation, signed the agreements with Yu Xuhong, director of the Art Museum of the China Academy of Art.

Zao was a Chinese-French painter. He graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he studied under French-trained Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu.

The donation marks a breakthrough, with Zao's paintings entering public museum collections in China for the first time. The newly established Zao Wou-Ki Research Center aims to promote his work internationally and foster cultural exchanges between China and France.

Francoise Marquet-Zao expressed her gratitude for the recognition of her husband's art and emphasized the continued impact of the recent Centennial Retrospective Exhibition of Zao Wou-Ki in Hangzhou.