Chinese painter Pan Yikui was presented a medal for his outstanding contribution to advancing Sino-Russian cultural exchange in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 9.

Pan, who is deputy head of China Artists Association Gansu Provincial Branch and also chief of the association for Chinese artists in Russia, is the first Chinese to receive the International Nicholas Roerich Medal, installed in 2003 in honor of Nicholas Roerich, who lived from 1874 to 1947 and was a well- known Russian painter, philosopher, archeologist and social activist.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Roerich championed the preservation of "cultural heritage" objects, leading to the internationally ratified Roerich Convention, and some of the convention's contents were inscribed into the United Nations Charter. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The International Nicholas Roerich Medal is given annually.

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