A Japanese artist’s painting of a cute but menacing cartoon girl sold for a whopping $24.9 million (Rs 117 crore) on Sunday. The painting which was made by Yoshitomo Nara is a caricature of a girl titled as “Knife Behind Back”.
The painting is of a girl wearing red clothes with one of her hands behind her back, holding the knife declared in the title.
“The painting’s title broadcasts the presence of a weapon, whose absence in the image is made more marked and more menacing. Not only is there a knife, but it is hidden with intent, primed for attack,” Sotheby’s website said.
“A new world auction record for Yoshitomo Nara has been achieved in our #HongKong Contemporary Art Evening Sale, with ‘Knife Behind Back’, sold for HK$196m / US$25m, nearly five times the previous auction record set earlier today,” Sotheby’s wrote on Twitter while sharing a photo of the painting.
Nara created the painting in 2000 after he returned to Japan after spending 12 years in Germany.
The auction was held at Hong Kong’s convention centre during Sotheby’s five-day marathon auction, while the city was engulfed with tear gas and protestors.
The event included 20 live auctions that are expected to get more than $336 million.
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