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Warhol painting of Chairman Mao sells for £7.6 million

An Andy Warhol painting of former Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung has been sold for more than 18 times the price paid last time it was up at auction.

The canvas of Chairman Mao went for £7.6 million at Sotherby's in London and was last sold at auction back in June 2000 for £421,500.

The painting of Chairman Mao, who died in 1976, was expected to fetch £5 million. Credit: PA

Warhol's Mao series was a response to US president Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.

He transformed the official portrait of the leader, in this case using the red and yellow colour scheme of the Cultural Revolution.