Perhaps the most expensive art is not always the greatest, but market popularity certainly reflects a piece’s degree of acceptance amongst the public. In recent years, several of Wu’s works sold for 10 million yuan each at public auctions. Since 2000, 1,417 pieces of his have been sold, for a total value of 1.78 billion yuan. Once, a piece which Wu insisted was a counterfeit still sold for 2.3 million yuan. However, Wu himself paid little attention to how much his work fetched in the public market.

Two major factors attested to Wu’s respectable virtues as a great artist: he donated many of his best works to art galleries and museums in China and abroad, and burned much of his work that he considered less than perfect.

In recent years, he donated nearly 200 pieces to the National Art Museum of China, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Shanghai Art Museum, and Singapore Art Museum. His behavior astonished many art brokers who saw him throwing away large sums of money. Wu saw his pieces like cherished “daughters,” and considered his action like finding them ideal husbands. He was even quoted saying, “My daughters are married to different places, such as the National Art Museum of China, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Shanghai Art Museum, and Lu Xun Museum. I hope my work can be seen by people from everywhere in the world and play an active role in promoting mutual understanding between contrasting cultures.”

In the 1950s, Wu created a series of paintings depicting Jinggang Mountain. Later, after reviewing them, he found none satisfying and burned them all. In 1966, he burned hundreds of his pieces that he created after returning to China. In September 1991, he burned hundreds more that failed to give him satisfaction. At the time, he was already a world-renowned painter, and each of his pieces was considered priceless. But Wu was unwavering in his refusal to let any of his substandard work survive.

Although his work fetched fortunes, Wu insisted on leading a simple life. He lived in a small apartment, and his work studio was tiny, with an area of less than 15 square meters. He sought little of the material life, but everything in the practice of art. Those who knew him assert that Wu valued his art more than his life.

His last words for his family read, “If you miss me, you can go see me in my art.”