Yang Zhenning. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On Friday, Yang and his wife Weng Fan donated the sculpture to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, where Xiong held a retrospective exhibition in 1999. He also donated another two of Xiong's bronze works, Horse and Camel, both produced in the late 1950s.

The three works demonstrate Xiong's distinguished approach to sculpture. He fragmented iron or bronze sheets into smaller pieces, and welded them into forms. The complete works have various enclosures formed by these chips, which according to Yang, become a feature of Xiong's output.

Yang says the approach was popular among artists in Britain and France in the 1950s and Xiong was a pioneer of the development.

"Xiong was an achiever in philosophy and art. He was also a calligrapher. His research in Chinese art infuses his great attainment in both Chinese and Western cultures," Yang said at the donation ceremony.

Xiong's interest in sculpture was ignited after meeting French sculptor Marcel Gimond shortly after he arrived in Paris. He was impressed by Gimond's works and began studying art with him.