July 18th, 2012 - The Chinese Art Show Il Drago e la Farfalla��Immagini di Cina a Montepulciano, jointly hosted by the Confucius Institute of Pisa and Piero Biblioteca e Archivio Calamandrei Montepulciano, was grandly opened at Montepulciano La fortezza at 6:00pm local time.

Prof. Giuliano Amato, Former Italian Prime Minister and the President of Scuola Superiore Sant' Anna, Mayor of Montepulciano Andrea Rossi, Consul General Zhou Yunqi of Chinese Consulate in Florence, Italy, Chen Yong, Chinese Director of the Confucius Institute of Pisa and Mdm. Silvia Calamandrei, President of Piero Biblioteca e Archivio Calamandrei Montepulciano, offered congratulations at the Opening Ceremony. Incumbent Italian Prime Minister Mairo Monti sent a congratulatory telegraph, wishing a successful show in advance.

This Art Show put on display five rare and authentic works of "People's Artist" Mr. Qi Baishi collected by Piero Biblioteca e Archivio Calamandrei Montepulciano and Italian private collection and exhibited several ancient butterfly water color paintings of China. In the meantime, classical works of Xu Shihu, President of College of Arts, Chongqing University and a celebrated contemporary painter and contemporary artist Zhang Jin were also demonstrated at the Show. Over 60 works displayed were strongly welcomed and praised by Italian visitors thanks to their distinctive personal styles, superb painting skills, rich connotation and provided an access for Italian people to contact Chinese culture and art and appreciate the profound, superb and unique Chinese painting in person.

Both China and Italy are ancient civilizations with time-honored history and splendid culture. The two countries enjoy long-standing cultural exchanges, which have become more frequent and vigorous in recent years. This Art Show is highly fitting to introduce Chinese culture and art to Italians, prote communication and interaction between artists of the two countries and facilitate cultural communication and cooperation between Tuscany Area in Italy and China.