An oil painting by contemporary artist Wu Guanzhong is sold at an auction held by Beijing-based auction house A&F, Nov 19, 2011. [Photo/CFP]

BEIJING - An oil painting by contemporary artist Wu Guanzhong was sold late Saturday for 149.5 million yuan ($23.6 million) at an auction held by Beijing-based auction house A&F.

The painting, entitled "Ten Thousand Kilometers of the Yangtze River", was created between 1973 and 1974 and is considered to be one of the artist's best works.

Born in 1919 in the city of Yixing in East China's Jiangsu province, Wu is widely recognized as the father of contemporary Chinese painting. He died in July 2010 at the age of 91.

The high-profile deal, one of the latest amid the exponential growth of the Chinese fine art market in recent years, also marks the highest price to date for one of Wu's paintings.

Earlier this month, an album of 12 landscape paintings by famed contemporary painter Qi Baishi was sold by Beijing-based China Guardian Auctions Co., Ltd. for 194 million yuan.