An auction in Hong Kong on Sunday established a record for works by a contemporary Chinese artist — when a collector paid the equivalent of $9.4 million Cdn for a set of 14 paintings by Cai Guo-Qiang.

Cai, born in Quanzhou City in 1957, began exploring the properties of gunpowder with these paintings done in gunpowder and ink, eventually developing the art events involving gunpowder that have made him internationally recognized.

"This piece presented a powerful combination of traditional and contemporary elements that appealed to both East and West, and drew bidding from Asia, Europe and America," said Eric Chang, Christie's international director of Chinese 20th century and Asian contemporary art.

Cai's 14 screens, which had been commissioned for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, sold for double their estimated value.

The artist, who lived in Japan from 1986 to 1995 and now lives in the U.S., has won the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for his work that involves creating a series of explosions with gunpowder or placing gunpowder on a canvas so that its residue creates the picture.

A mid-career retrospective of Cai's work is to be held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2008.

The previous record for the work of a contemporary Chinese artist was $5.9 million US, set last month at Sotheby's in Britain, for the painting Execution by Yue Minjun.

Yue was also represented at the Christie's auction in Hong Kong on Sunday. Life, an installation of 15 separate paintings of himself in different, contorted and absurdist positions, sold for $2.75 million Cdn.

On the first day of the five-day auction, Christie's said it took in $107 million Cdn, more than four times its estimate

With files from the Associated Press