Fifty-one original masterpieces by 12 French impressionist painters arrived Tuesday morning in this largest metropolis and cultural center of eastern China for an exhibition from Dec. 9, 2004 to Jan. 19.

The art show is part of the "Year of France in China", a Sino-French cultural exchange event which was officially launched on Oct. 10.

The 51 paintings include those by Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and Afred Sisley. The collection is believed to be a feat of light and colors and beauty of humanity.

Of the 51 works, 38 are provided by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, 11 others are from other French museums, and one from the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Group, which is sponsoring the exhibitions in China

The outstanding paintings are matched by their insurance value -- 5 billion euros or 6.02 billion US dollars.

The display in Shanghai, scheduled to run at the Shanghai Art Museum, is a follow-up of the exhibition in Beijing, which was held from Oct. 11 to Nov. 27 at the National Art Gallery.

The art show attracted approximately 300,000 visitors in Beijing. The National Art Gallary in the nation's capital had to extend service time every day, and at the end of the event, it set a record of nonstop operation for consecutive 36 hours to receive enthusiastic art lovers.

Service time extension will also be arranged for the impressionist art exhibition in Shanghai, according to the Shanghai Art Museum.

"Many Chinese at my age have been familiar with some of the exhibits since childhood. The pictures were printed in our school textbooks, and it's so cool to see the real ones," Li He, a Beijing journalist was quoted by a local paper as saying.

"We have presented Impressionism in China because it shows the essence of the French spirit, that is, of romanticism and freedom," said Serge Lemoine, president of the Musee d'Orsay who is also a co-curator of the exhibitions in China.

Impressionism is an art movement that happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the West, chiefly in France. It's so important to art history that it brought about a fundamental change to Western art and also had an impact on Chinese art, he added.

He believed the Chinese public would find it easy to accept Impressionism because it involved elements of Chinese art.