300 Yuan Centenary of the Central Academy of Fine Arts

The Central Academy of Fine Arts, founded in Beijing in 1918, is China's oldest state-run art institution and the training ground for virtually every major figure in 20th-century Chinese official art. Its centenary in 2018 prompted a series of commemorative issues, of which this kilogram silver piece is the flagship. The academy survived Japanese occupation, civil war, and the Cultural Revolution — during which it was shuttered entirely from 1966 to 1977 and its faculty subjected to political persecution.