Edward Snowden Portraits Are All The Rage In China

For years, China has been the place to go for cheap paintings. More specifically, the place is Dafen, a gallery-choked village outside of Beijing where painters hawk their fake van Goghs and customized "happy families."

But lately a new genre of art is distinguishing the village. As reported over the weekend by the South China Morning Post, the "famed" marketplace is awash in portraits of a certain international man of mystery:

In case you didn't recognize him in his signature outfit, that's former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden. The paintings above are all the work of a single Snowden fan, resident Dafen artist Huang Haifan. Since the leaks began in June of last year, Huang has been like a man possessed, according to the SCMP, turning out portraits of 2013-Guardian-video-era Snowden in front of various settings that figure into his unfolding saga: Hong Kong, Capitol Hill, Red Square and the Kremlin.

The paintings are priced at ten times the going-rate for Dafen's "knock-offs of Impressionist masterpieces," reports the SCMP, from about $30 to $300. As befits daring new work, no one at home really seems to get them:

While Huang has yet to sell any of the Snowden works, he says he fields calls about the portraits at least once a week from art collectors in Germany, France, Denmark and Canada, and many of the prospective buyers are women. They all said hes very handsome, the 38-year-old explained at his studio yesterday. I think many women like heroes who look cool and distant.

"Cool and distant," eh? We can only assume no one involved has seen these yet.

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Edward Snowden Portraits Are All The Rage In China