Thread by @WilliamYang120

At least 9 artworks, including the oil painting "New Beijing" by Chinese artist Wang Xingwei that is viewed as a thinly veiled allusion to the deaths of pro-democracy protesters during the #TiananmenSquareMassacre" were removed as M+ in #HongKong reopens.edition.cnn.com/style/article/…

"Images published by local media outlet Hong Kong Free Press on Thursday show a different painting in the spot where Wang's work had previously hung. Both Liu's original image and Wang's parody are owned by M+ and remain listed in the museum's online archive."

"Eight other artworks were also removed from view, including the painter Wang Guangyi's depiction of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong covered with a grid of red lines."

"Not all of the withdrawn works contained explicitly political content. In a statement emailed to CNN, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the organization that oversees M+, said that paintings' removal was part of a routine "rotation" of exhibited art."

"It has always been M+'s plan to rotate over 200 artworks in the first year after its opening," the statement read, citing maintenance related to "artwork conditions and conservation needs." It added that further works are expected to be rotated out over the coming few months.

The organization did not directly address whether any of the works were removed for political reasons but did state that exhibitions are curated "in full compliance with relevant laws and regulations."

Over the past six months, several high-profile Tiananmen-related artworks have been removed from view in Hong Kong, which was once the only place on Chinese soil where people could freely commemorate the victims of the bloody crackdown.

Among them was the renowned "Pillar of Shame," a mass of writhing bodies and screaming faces that had long stood on the University of Hong Kong's campus. The sculpture was taken down in the middle of the night when students were away on winter break.

Shortly after, two other universities removed replicas of the "Goddess of Democracy," a statue first erected by students in Tiananmen Square in 1989, from their campuses.