Fears for the safety of China’s most famous artist are growing amid international condemnation of his extralegal disappearance at the hands of the country’s increasingly repressive state security apparatus.
Family members of Ai Weiwei, whose “Sunflower Seeds” exhibition is currently on display in London’s Tate Modern gallery, said on Tuesday evening they still had no idea of his whereabouts, after he was detained at Beijing airport on Sunday and led away by airport security.
Until now, Mr Ai was seen as immune from the kind of persecution increasingly meted out to other activists, thanks to his stature as a rich and famous international artist.