Design OKd for King memorial

A master sculptor from China was chosen Thursday to carve the image of Martin Luther King Jr. for a memorial to the slain civil rights leader to be built on the National Mall.

Lei Yixin, one of nine sculptors considered national treasures in China, will carve King’s likeness in the memorial’s 28-foot granite “Stone of Hope,” officials said.

The figure will be sculpted from a light beige variety of granite stone found in China’s Fujian province.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, one of the groups that oversees the architecture of the nation’s capital, approved the sculpture’s design and 14 quotations from King to be included in the memorial. The project will occupy a four-acre plot on the Tidal Basin facing the Jefferson Memorial and is expected to be completed in 2008.