Ai Weiwei MASK month-long charity initiative raises over $1.4m

13 July 2020

The Ai Weiwei MASK art project, launched on 21 May in collaboration with eBay for Charity, raised over $1.4 million over its month-long run – the most raised on eBay for Charity as a single charity art campaign – and sold over 22,000 artworks to people from 40 countries. All of the proceeds will support COVID-19 humanitarian emergency efforts led by Human Rights Watch, Refugees International, and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Available exclusively through eBay for Charity, Ai Weiwei MASK artworks were sold for $50 for single works, $300 for series of four works, and $1500 for a collection set of twenty.

The project offered face coverings hand printed with iconic images of the artist's life-long campaign for free speech and individual rights. The images are silk-screened by hand on non-surgical cloth face masks. The artworks are being made in the artist’s studio in Berlin. Ai donated the artworks to be sold exclusively through eBay for Charity and 100% of the proceeds from these sales will equally benefit the COVID-19 emergency humanitarian and human rights efforts led by these non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the COVID-19 emergency, all three NGOs are working to promote and defend the rights and the well-being of displaced communities around the world.

In his statement on the Ai Weiwei MASK project, Ai comments, “The COVID-19 pandemic is a humanitarian crisis. It challenges our understanding of the 21st century and warns of dangers ahead. It requires each individual to act, both alone and collectively”. Ai Weiwei MASK is curated as an independent project by Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator, Asian Art and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, who has collaborated with Ai on previous projects.

Works can be purchased by visiting www.ebay.com/aiweiweimask