Washington/Los Angeles — 

A California college is seeking the return, "no questions asked," of an iconic image of Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong created by famed American artist Andy Warhol.

Two weeks ago, Orange Coast College discovered that one of Warhol’s signed silkscreen prints of Mao was missing from its vault. The portrait has an estimated value of $50,000.

Doug Bennett, executive director for college advancement at Orange Coast College, told VOA’s Mandarin Service that the print was purchased by a person close to the school from a gallery in Laguna Beach, California, in 1974 and donated to the school anonymously in September 2020.

But now, even before it was put on display, it’s gone missing.

Bennett said he hopes someone just took the print by mistake, adding that the college wouldn’t ask questions if it was returned.

"Someone perhaps took it and put it in their office or put it in their home and thought it was OK to do. Or maybe it was misplaced, but I don't think it was like a ring of art thieves that stole it," he said.

Warhol made the portraits of Mao in the 1970s after U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China.

"When it [the portrait of Mao] first came out in the 1970s, it was very controversial, still maybe to some people," Bennett said.

From 1972-73, Warhol used the image of Mao from the Little Red Book, widely circulated in China, as a template to create 199 richly colored Mao silkscreen works in five series.

The school immediately launched an internal investigation after discovering the print was missing on March 13. A week later, a report was made to the Costa Mesa Police Department in Orange County, where the school is located. The police are investigating.

"It's a high priority for the police department, and two detectives are assigned to the case and are working on it," Bennett said.

The Costa Mesa Police Department told VOA the investigation is ongoing but did not provide any new details.

Police and the school are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

Warhol, who is known as the godfather of the pop art movement, began using ubiquitous objects such as Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles as subjects for his creations in the 1960s, kicking off the movement.

A summary of the Mao portraits by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York says this about the series: "As interpreted by Warhol, these works, with their repeated image painted in flamboyant colors and with expressionistic marks, may suggest a parallel between political propaganda and capitalist advertising."

In 1982, Warhol visited China and took a photo in front of the portrait of Mao in Tiananmen Square. Five years later, Warhol died.

In 2013, Warhol's works toured China, but the Mao series was forced to be withdrawn. At the time, Chinese state media claimed that the Mao in the works "far exceeded the officially acceptable image."

However, the Mao series has become one of Warhol's most sought-after celebrity portraits by collectors. According to data from Sotheby's auction house, in 2015, a Mao painting was sold for $47.5 million. In 2017, another painting of Mao was sold for $12.7 million.