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Shanghai (AFP) Jan 12, 2011 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said Wednesday authorities had swiftly demolished his newly built Shanghai studio without warning, in a move he said was linked to his political activism. The 53-year-old Ai, one of China's most famous and controversial artists, said the demolition began before dawn on Tuesday, without any prior notification. "I didn't expect it to happen so quickly, although I knew they will demolish it. But I thought it could be sometime after the Spring Festival," which begins next month, Ai told AFP. Officials originally asked Ai, who is an outspoken critic of the country's Communist leaders, to build the studio as the centre of a fledgling art district. But then in a U-turn, the city ordered it demolished after he criticised its policies, writing in particular about Shanghai-based activist Feng Zhenghu, who was blocked from returning home from Japan for months. "They said before it was because of improper use of the land," Ai said Wednesday. Ai said the demolition began in the early hours on Tuesday and he flew from Beijing to Shanghai as soon as he heard the news. "I got the information yesterday morning that they were demolishing my workshop. I flew to Shanghai yesterday. The demolition actually started in the night," he said. Ai was briefly placed under house arrest in November to prevent him from attending a feast at the studio that he organised for supporters as an ironic celebration of the authorities' decision to destroy the building. Despite his arrest, hundreds came to the studio on November 5 for a crab feast -- the word "river crab" in Chinese sounds like "harmonise", a euphemism for government censorship. Chen Jie, the director of the urban construction department in the district where the studio was built, told the state-run Global Times newspaper that authorities had not informed Ai when they would demolish the studio. "We told them them the studio would be demolished within a certain period of time, but there was no specific time given," Chen was quoted as saying. Ai had previously said he signed a 30-year lease on property and spent about $1 million to build the 2,000-square-metre (21,500-square-foot) studio.
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