--- description: The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has set up one of the first Lego collection points in the world for artist Ai Weiwei title: This Gallery Set Up a Lego Collection Point for Ai Weiwei image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4aa0d985ad0bc2/69886ea6a988ca21a26b5092/img_0091.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Art](/tag/art/) ## Art Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # One of Australia's Top Art Galleries Has Set Up a Lego Collection Point for Ai Weiwei by [Joanna Plucinska](/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 5:12 AM CUT  National Gallery of Victoria by [Joanna Plucinska](/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 5:12 AM CUT The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has set up a Lego collection point for Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei after he [posted on Instagram](http://time.com/4086548/ai-weiwei-lego-art-twitter-fans/ "undefined") that the toy firm had officially denied him a bulk order of their signature blocks. Lego said it was against company policy to support political works. “We have received many offers of donations of Lego in the past days,” NGV director Tony Ellwood said in a statement. “People have shown their generosity, creative spirit and enthusiasm to become engaged in this project, and we are pleased to be the first international collection point.” As of Wednesday, passers-by could donate to Ai’s art project by pouring their Lego blocks into the sunroof of a car parked in the sculpture garden of the gallery. The NGV decided to set up the donation point after #LegosForWeiwei began trending on Twitter, with fans openly offering their own Lego collections so the artist could complete his new installation. “Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei,” an exhibition that will feature both Ai and Andy Warhol’s works, is set to open at the NGV on Dec. 11. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/"},"headline":"One of Australia's Top Art Galleries Has Set Up a Lego Collection Point for Ai Weiwei","datePublished":"2015-10-29T05:12:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:10:20.426Z","description":"\"We are pleased to be the first international collection point\"","url":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/","keywords":["Art","Lego","Ai Weiwei","Melbourne"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4aa0d985ad0bc2/69886ea6a988ca21a26b5092/img_0091.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4aa0d985ad0bc2/69886ea6a988ca21a26b5092/img_0091.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"img_0091.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"National Gallery of Victoria","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/art/","name":"Art"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/","name":"One of Australia's Top Art Galleries Has Set Up a Lego Collection Point for Ai Weiwei"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ai Weiwei Talks About His Cover Art for TIME Magazine","description":"Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei talks about the meaning of his striking cover art for TIME magazine's 'The World According to China' issue.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YQkMHXA7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-06-07T15:48:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YQkMHXA7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/","duration":"PT2M36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4092132/national-gallery-of-victoria-lego-collection-point/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```