A politically charged Chinese contemporary art masterpiece sold for a record GBP2.93 million (HK$46.2 million) at a London auction, 185 times the price the owner bought it for in Hong Kong more than a decade ago.
Execution, by artist Yue Minjun, which adapts a 19th century Edouard Manet classic to echo the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, set a record for a Chinese contemporary artwork during Sotheby's auction on Friday.
The buyer, whose identity has not been released, placed his bid via telephone.
Yue is one of China's most important avant garde artists. Another of his works, The Pope, held the previous auction record for a contemporary Chinese artwork when it was bought for HK$33.9 million in June.
Execution was completed in 1995. Sotheby's billed it as 'among the most important paintings of the Chinese avant garde ever to appear at auction'.
The work, with a pre-sale estimate of between HK$23 million and HK$30 million, had never been exhibited until the auction.