Chinese contemporary art record sale smashed - Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com
Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 09:04AM 
Yue Minjun's "Execution" fetched 2,932,500 pounds (5,964,700 dollars, 4,210,300 euros) after two telephone bidders battled it out. The pre-sale estimate was between 1.5 and two million pounds.
The previous highest price paid at auction for a Chinese avant-garde artist was set in June for Yue's 1997 work "The Pope" for 2.15 million pounds.
Yue is one of the most important Chinese avant-garde artists. His 1995 work "Execution" was inspired by "The Execution of Emperor Maximilian" by Edouard Manet, which was itself inspired by "The Third of May 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid" by Francisco Goya.
Yue transposed the theme onto the background of Tiananmen Square.
The work has never been exhibited due to its subject matter. The sale at Sotheby's was the first time it has been seen in public.
The auction marked the start of a series of high-profile contemporary art sales in London. Rising levels of interest in the genre prompted Christie's and Sotheby's to stage competing auctions.
Along with the traditional February and June sales of contemporary and impressionist art, the contemporary art sales this month are timed to coincide with the four-day Frieze art fair in London's Regent's Park, which ends Sunday.
Eight years ago, the October sales generated between one and two million pounds (2.2 and 2.9 million euros, 3.1 and 4.1 million dollars).
By comparison, Friday's Sotheby's auction and another sale on Monday are expected to fetch between 48 and 68 million pounds -- a record -- according to pre-sale estimates.
In addition to well-known artists like Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy and Damien Hirst, the sales are also offering works from other parts of the world, with a strong Italian and Chinese presence, including Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng Fanzhi.
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