Wen C. Fong (Chinese: 方聞; pinyin: Fāng Wén; 1930 – October 3, 2018) was a Chinese-American historian of East Asian art.
In 1959 he co-founded the first doctoral program in Chinese art and archaeology in the United States, which was later expanded to include Japan.
[2] In 1959, Wen Fong and Frederick W. Mote co-founded the first doctoral program in Chinese art and archaeology in the United States,[1][2] which was expanded to include Japan in 1962.
[2] At the Met, he had an influential debate with art historian James Cahill over the authenticity of The Riverbank, a famous 10th-century painting attributed to the Southern Tang master Dong Yuan.
[4] It was purchased and donated to the museum by the financier Oscar Tang,[5] Fong's brother-in-law.
[6] Cahill made an explosive argument that the painting was a fake created by the 20th-century master painter and forger Zhang Daqian,[4] while Fong disagreed with his finding.