Vietnamese masterpieces return home

Works of artists from Indochina Fine Arts College's first generation will be brought to Vietnam by collector Nguyen Minh.

Minh bought three artworks by Vu Cao Dam and Tran Quang Tran at an auction at the Asian 20th Century & Contemporary Art Show in Hong Kong early this week.

The two paintings, both oils, are Lovers in a Landscape and Two Lovers by Vu Cao Dam and West Lake by Tran Quang Tran which were previously owned by foreign collectors.

"I like Two Lovers the most because it is not only a masterpiece by a Vietnamese painter but is also very typical characters of Vietnamese culture," said Minh.

Minh also successfully bid in the US for two other paintings by Vu Cao Dam. The paintings will come back to Vietnam within two weeks.

Dam had at many exhibitions in Paris and in the south of France. His paintings have been added to the permanent collections of museums in Algiers and France.

Tran was among the avant-garde to develop traditional lacquer paintings with different materials, keeping it distinctive from work done in Japan and China.