The News Minute | October 15, 2014 | 08:28 am IST
Doha: A controversial painting by Iranian artist Mahmud Obaidi, depicting an Iraqi journalist throwing shoe in 2008 at then US president George W. Bush, was sold for $62,500 at a Sotheby's auction in Doha.
The price of the painting titled "Farewell Kiss" was the highest paid so far for the Iranian artist's works, the organisers said on Tuesday.
The piece, included in a collection auctioned on Monday, was controversial because of its political content.
It portrayed Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi hurling his shoe at Bush during a Baghdad press conference. The reporter was later jailed for a few months.
Twelve other artists also sold their art works in Doha at prices they had never achieved before, including Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor.
The total figure netted at the auction reached $8 million, with as many as 13 sales records, Sotheby's expert Aileen Agopian said.
The auction, which was held in the cultural city of Katara, included 52 pieces of contemporary art by artists from across the Middle East, the US and Britain. Artists from 22 countries were present at the event.
With IANS