An iconic portrait of late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong has been acquired by the National Museum of China after the plans to auction it last spring were called off under pressure.

Zhang Bai, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the portrait would be permanently preserved in the National Museum.

The Administration and the National Museum co-financed the purchase of the portrait, said Zhang.

Beijing Huachen Auction Co. had planned to auction the painting of Mao Zedong that once hung above Beijing's Tian'anmen rostrum in the 1950s and 1960s in its spring auction season this year, but canceled the auction following "advice from the government" and public criticism.

Mei Ligang, a spokesman with the Beijing Auction House, said in May this year that the sale would be open to both Chinese and foreign bidders.

The proposed plan sparked intense on-line criticism, with Internet users arguing the portrait was a national treasure and should not be sold.

"The portrait is worth far more than its monetary value in terms of art and history," said Chen Lusheng, a researcher from the China National Museum of Fine Arts.

The portrait, 91 centimeters high and 68.5 centimeters wide, was painted in the 1950s by portraitist Zhang Zhenshi. Posters of the work were made and circulated throughout the country.

Mao, the founder of the People's Republic of China, was born in 1893 and died in 1976.

The painting, owned by a Chinese American, was expected to fetch about one million yuan (125,000 U.S. dollars) to 1.2 million yuan at auction, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

Zhang was born in 1914 and died in 1992. In 1950, he was among more than 30 painters from around the country invited to create a new portrait of Mao to mark the first anniversary of the People's Republic of China.