Wife of late Japanese Buddhist Artist Hirayama 'Concealed Assets'

THE GLOBAL POST
By Agence France-Presse

JAPAN---The wife of the late Japanese painter Ikuo Hirayama concealed around $3 million worth of her husband's assets to avoid a hefty tax bill, reports said Saturday. Hirayama was known for his efforts to preserve cultural treasures such as the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, China's Mogao Caves and Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhist monuments, which were blown up in 2001 by the Taliban. He was first recognised widely for his 1959 work "Bukkyo Denrai", depicting an ancient Buddhist monk who carried the religion from India to China. Hirayama created a series of Buddhist-themed paintings of landscapes and ancient ruins on his frequent trips to sites along the ancient Silk Road. [link]