Drawn by Japanese contemporary artist Hisashi Tenmyouya

Japanese artist Hisashi Tenmyouya's RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version painting, which depicts the main mobile suit robot of the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime against a background of gold leaf, has been sold at a Christie's International art auction in Hong Kong for HK$4.8 million (about US$615,000).

Born in 1966, Tenmyouya paints in what he calls the "neo-nihonga" style, combining techniques of traditional Japanese art with imagery and subject matter inspired by anime, manga and Western consumer culture, as well as subtle satirical elements. He is self-taught, and first emerged as a graffiti artist and music CD cover designer, before creating pieces like a promotional poster for Japan's 2006 World Cup team. That poster featured two armor-clad samurai playing soccer. Since then, his art has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, and the Porte de Versailles in Paris. The Gundam painting was created for the Gundam Generating Futures exhibition, which traveled to art museums around Japan from 2005 to 2007.