$14m Bid Wins Wooden Buddha, Sets Record

Price sets new bar for Japanese art

A wooden Buddha sculpture set a new world auction record for Japanese art when it was sold at Christie's on Tuesday to Mitsukoshi Co. Ltd. The newly discovered wooden depicition of a Buddha, which had religious objects sealed in its torso for 800 years, sold for $14.3 million, setting a world record for any Japanese work of art, reported Reuters.

"History was made today," Katsura Yamaguchi, Christie's International Director of Japanese and Korean Art, said. "We witnessed enormous interest from clients worldwide who traveled from near and far to...participate in this landmark sale," he added.

The previous record for Asian art at auction was $12.6 million. Tuesday's price, which included Christie's commission, also established a new record for Asian art sold at auction in New York.

(AP Photo/Christie's Images Ltd. 2008)