Tracey Emin sad after My Bed sells for HK$29m in London

British artist Tracey Emin's controversial My Bed has sold for £2.2 million (HK$29.2 million), almost double its guide price, at an auction in London.

The work, a rumpled bed surrounded by the intimate debris of empty bottles of vodka, cigarette packets and condoms, attracted controversy when it was shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize, prompting a debate about the state of contemporary art.

Among the most well-known pieces produced by the Young British Artists generation of Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas that came to prominence in the 1990s, the installation had been priced at between £800,000 and £1.2 million ahead of the sale at Christie's auction house.

It was bought by wealthy art dealer Charles Saatchi for a reported £150,000 in 2000.

Emin, 50, has said that the bed reflected a tumultuous period in her life when she was suffering from a broken heart, and was a comment on the relationship between her life and her work.

In an unusual move, the artist was in the crowded auction room as applause broke out when the piece was sold.