A new world record was set for Chinese contemporary art at auction last night when Zhang Xiaogang's 1988 painting "Forever Lasting Love" sold for a total of $10 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong. Zhang's early masterpiece was part of a 105-lot sale of works from the Ullens Collection of Chinese contemporary art, a famous trove that founder Baron Guy Ullens had once hoped would form the core of a private museum collection in Beijing. The new record surpassed the one set in 2008 when, at the height of the contemporary art boo, Zeng Fanzhi's "Mask Series 1996, Number 6" sold for $9.7 million at Christie's Hong Kong.

The sale occurred on the same day that Chinese police arrested political artist Ai Weiwei as part of a mounting crackdown on dissident intellectuals. 

View Slideshow: Chinese Contemporary Art Roared to New Records at Sotheby's Flawless, $55 Million Ullens Collection Sale

At  Sotheby's, the room was packed for what proved to be a white-glove, or perfect, sale, with bidders battling for almost every lot in a tense atmosphere. By the end of the night, the auction house had netted $54,774,263, more than trebling its high presale estimate of $16.7 million. Phone bidders dominated the action, reducing those in the room — including a morose-looking Uli Sigg (whose own collection of Chinese contemporary art rivals that of Ullens) — to the position of bystanders. After the sale Sigg confirmed to Reuters that he did bid, "but the prices were too high."

The tone of the night was set by the very first lot, Zhang Peili's "Profile of the Saxophonist" (1986), which sold after a long duel between phone bidders for $619,000, more than four times its high estimate. The next lot, Zhang Pelli's "Series 'X?' No. 3" (1986), set a new record for the artist, hammering to a phone bidder for a total of $3 million, nine times its high estimate.

This was to be the first of many artist records set on the night, with works by Wang Guangyi, Geng Jianyi, Yu Youhan, Ding Yi, and Guan Wei, among others, soaring past their high estimates to set new marks. What was notable about these works in particular was that they dated from the flowering of China's avant-garde in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some of them went for more than 20 times their high estimates, as bidders battled to secure a piece of Chinese contemporary art history.

A number of the works that drew the most energetic bidding — including Zhang Xiaogang's "Forever Lasting Love" and works by Geng Jianyi, Zhang Peili, Guan Wei, Wang Guangyi, and Yang Jiechang — had first been exhibited in the seminal "China/Avant-Garde" exhibition at Beijing's National Art Museumu in February 1989. This was the legendary show that first defined the contours of the country's contemporary art scene to the world, and introduced many of the names that would dominate Chinese art scene for the succeeding decade (Fang Lijun, Xu Bing, and Liu Xiaodong also came to notice in the exhibition). Coming just before the student demonstrations that culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, the "China/Avant-Garde" exhibition occupies an unrivalled place in the history of Chinese contemporary art.

For the time being, the identity of most of the successful bidders for the top lots are unknown, but there was speculation that "Forever Lasting Love" was bought by Wang Wei, the wife of billionaire collector Liu Yiqian. Wang plans to open a private museum late next year in Shanghai, and has been very active in the auction room in China over the last two years. If she does turn out to be the buyer, it will come as a relief to those worried about a historic work of this significance disappearing into a less-visible private collection.

Meanwhile, last night's proceedings were notable for the re-entry of Western buyers into a scene that Chinese collectors have recently had all to themselves. Among the top ten bidders were at least three from the United States, indicating that international support for Chinese contemporary art continues apace.