A security guard stands watch as a visitor takes a photo of a painting depicting snow-capped Mount Baekdu, the mythical birthplace of the Korean people, at the booth for The Paintings Say Arirang gallery that trumpets itself as China’s premier seller of North Korean art, in Beijing, Sept. 8, 2023. The gallery’s existence and conspicuous sales tactics, experts say, highlight China’s lax enforcement of U.N. sanctions targeting North Korea to stymie Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
The dealer, who had salt-and-pepper hair and refused to divulge his name, was a representative of an art gallery that trumpets itself as China’s premier seller of North Korean art. The gallery, The Paintings Say Arirang, also operates a studio for North Korean artists in the outskirts of Beijing.China supported sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear program.
An Arirang employee told The AP by phone that the studio was in operation and offered a tour of the complex. She also said the studio was selling customized portraits by its North Korean artists. The employee, a woman identifying herself as surnamed Shen, changed her story a few days later, saying the base wasn’t in operation because “business is bad.
In most countries, art is seen as a form of self-expression. But in North Korea it is strictly regulated. Artists work directly for North Korea’s propaganda authorities, and their mission is to create art glorifying the state and its socialist, nationalist ideology.“All artists in North Korea are slaves to the Party,” said Song Byeok, a dissident artist who painted propaganda posters in North Korea until he fled to the South two decades ago.
BG Muhn, an expert in North Korean art at Georgetown University, said artists enjoy special care and respect in North Korean society.