An auction of Chinese paintings and sculpture has been canceled after some of the artworks were found to be fake.

Li Guohua, manager of the oil painting and sculpture department of ZD international, a Beijing-based auction company, said the auction was canceled because some of the artworks were "controversial".

The artworks were scheduled to go under the hammer in Beijing yesterday. The starting price of the work ranged from 30,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan.

"They were cancelled as they are controversial," said Li, without saying that the artwork is forged. He refused to provide further details.

Artists who have been caught up in the scandal include Zhao Ruiying, a well-known sculptor and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Cao Chunsheng, another famous sculptor, and the late Chinese landscape oil painter Ai Zhongxin.

According to the Beijing Times, Zhao Ruiying confirmed the sculptures were fake after going to the hotel where the auction company held the auction preview.

Ai Minyou, son of Ai Zhongxin, said the paintings in his father's name were obviously fake.

"I was told by my friends that the auction house was to sell a painting by my father from 1985. The painting is of a landscape in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan province," he said.

"But my father spent a whole year in Inner Mongolia in 1985 and did sketches of landscapes there," he said. "It is so easy to find fake works in art auctions nowadays."

Most of the artists felt angry and considered the poor forgery of their artwork to be humiliating.

"They (the fake ones) are poorly copied but signed with our names. They badly affect our reputations," Cao said.

"Even though there is no sound regulation yet, the company should at least have a sense of morality," he said. Art auction companies in China are not legally responsible if artworks that they sell are found to be fake.