A triptych by Zhang Xiaogang set an auction record for a contemporary Chinese artwork on Sunday in Hong Kong.

The $10.1m sale of the 1988 Forever Lasting Love oil painting surpassed the $9.5m achieved by Zeng Fanzhi's Mask Series 1996 No. 6 in 2008 and more than doubled its estimate.

Forever Lasting Love, which portrays several nearly nude figures, has been called "a monumental museum-quality work from a defining period of the Chinese avant-garde", by Evelyn Lin, Sotheby's head of contemporary Asian art.

All 106 works at the auction sold, doubling the pre-sale estimates to achieve $54.8m, evidence of the growing market for contemporary Chinese art, especially among Asian investors.

Zhang Xiaogang’s triptych made $10.1m

At the same sale Zhang Peili's Series X? No. 3 made $3m, Wang Guangyi's Mao Zedong: P2 achieved $2.5m and Geng Jianyi's Two People Under a Light realised $2.4m - all auction records for the artists.