A Minimalist 1950s oil-on-masonite painting, “Cats and Birds,” by the celebrated Chinese artist Sanyu fetched a record $5.4 million at Christie’s Hong Kong auction, Reuters reported. The Sunday evening sale to an anonymous buyer set a world auction record for Sanyu, a China-born artist who spent several years in France, and was a positive sign for the Asian art market, buffeted by the same financial crisis that has hit art markets worldwide. Three other works — by Zao Wou-ki, a Chinese artist who, like Sanyu, established a career in France — sold for several times their pre-sale estimates. Christie’s spring sale of Asian art in Hong Kong is considered a key indicator of Asian art market sentiment. Over all, $23.4 million of Asian contemporary and Chinese 20th-century art was sold at auction. Although 11 percent of the lots went unsold, the total represented nearly double the pre-sale estimates, considered a healthy sign for an anemic art market.