A second hand car has found new life as a LEGO collection point for the determined Chinese artist.

There’s a new addition to the National Gallery of Victoria’s sculpture garden, but unlike the other installations that reside behind the NGV it’s not there for its aesthetical merits. The white 1989 BMW sedan has taken its place outside the Melbourne gallery as both a statement of protest against cultural censorship, and as a handy collection point for receiving donations of LEGO.

The fate of the second-hand vehicle was set in motion last Friday, when the Dutch manufacturers of the popular LEGO bricks refused to honour a major order from the NGV for the upcoming exhibition by the celebrated Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Intended to be used to create portraits of Australian human rights campaigners, LEGO declined to send the requested bricks on “political grounds.”

After Ai Weiwei shared the snub with his social media followers in instagram many fans of the popular artist offered donations of their own LEGO supplies to meet the shortfall. The campaign to supply the...