A “barbaric and backward legal system” has spoken and artist Ai Weiwei has heard it loud and clear. Chinese authorities have denied Weiwei’s appeal of his $2.4 million tax bill.
Last year, Ai made headlines when he announced that he would challenge charges filed against him for tax evasion; Ai and his supporters claim that the charges are bogus, the result of Ai’s open criticism of the Chinese government. Shortly after he filed the appeal, Ai was arrested again on porn charges related to his photo titled “One Tiger, Eight Breasts” which shows the artist and four women, all of them sitting nude.
Ai raised more than $1 million in order to file the appeal since under Chinese law; his mother had intended to sell her house to pay for the appeal until supporters took to social media to help raise additional funds. Ai has now exhausted his appeals.
This week, the Chinese government also announced plans to close down Ai’s firm. While that ruling initially sounded like bad news, Ai says that it might be an indication that he will not have to pay the remainder of the tax fine previously attached to the company. That result might be the result of international scrutiny of his case.
Ai claims that Chinese authorities continue to deny him his legal rights, a claim that he does not appear to make quietly despite having been arrested and allegedly beaten by authorities for speaking out against the government in prior years. The artist, who is best known in the western world for helping design the National Stadium in Beijing, known as the “Bird’s Nest” (鸟巢), for the 2008 Olympics, has often used his art to call attention to what he perceives as the oppressiveness of government in Chinese society. His profile across the world is definitely heightening: he was recently named “the most powerful artist in the world” by ArtReview magazine and he was a runner up as the Time Person of the Year for 2011.
