Hong Kong - A Hong Kong billionaire has paid a record 17.3 million US dollars for a painting of China's Chairman Mao Zedong by pop artist Andy Warhol, it was revealed Thursday.
Art collector Joseph Lau made the sucessful bid to clinch the painting, which depicts the former leader in typical Warhol-style, when it went under the hammer at Christie's New York Wednesday evening. The amount is a world record for a Warhol painting.
The silk-screen painting is considered one of Warhol's best works from the 1970s and shows Mao in a dark blue jacket against a light-blue background.
The buyer was on Thursday revealed as Joseph Lau, a self-made real-estate billionaire considered to be one of Hong Kong's most flamboyant tycoons.
The 54-year-old holds a majority stake in Chinese Estate Holdings and has a net worth of 1.7 billion US dollars according to Forbes.
Christie's said the painting fetched around 5 million dollars more than expected.
The price exceeded that paid for other Warhol paintings including a portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, called Orange Marilyn, which fetched 16.2 million US dollars.
Warhol's Sixteen Jackies, a depiction of the wife of assassinated president John F Kennedy, brought in 15.6 million dollars.
The sale of post-war and contemporary art also included works by Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Sam Francis and Sol Lewitt.
Christie's said the sale total had topped 239 million US dollars, breaking through the 200 million barrier mark for a sale of post war and contemporary for the first time.
'Tonight's sale caps an incredible two weeks at Christie's where we have seen record totals and unprecedented depth in the market in all fields,' said Edward Dolman, chief executive officer of Christie's.
In total of 19 new world auction records were set at the sale with de Kooning's Untitled XXV setting a new world auction record for any post-war work at just over 27 million US dollars.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
alMay 23rd, 2007 - 01:04:31
The world definitely needs artists & artworks, & people who appreciate such things, but is any painting truly worth $17million+? Surely not when there are millions of people dying of poverty & disease all around us. Some of the privileged & wealthy, who spend such phenomenal sums on their luxurious lifestyles, need to develop a social conscience.
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