Sunday night in Hong Kong, Sotheby’s marquee sale of Contemporary art will feature works by Cecily Brown, Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara—and a $12m Andy Warhol Mao painting. Kusama, Nara and Murakami all have achieved strong market positions in both the East and West.

Chinese buyers have proved eager consumers of Western Contemporary artists in the London and New York sales. But now Sotheby’s is trying to do two things at once: bring Western Contemporary artists to Hong Kong’s sales and jump-start the dormant Warhol market.

Quartz takes this opportunity to examine the history of Warhol’s Mao paintings and the artist’s stature in China:

It is hard to overstate the influence of Andy Warhol on modern Chinese artists. “He’s such a large figure in China,” says Alexandra Seno, Head of Development at Hong Kong’s Asia Art Archives, “also because Warhol’s idea that art is good business is so embraced by contemporary Chinese artists, it really resonates.”

A Warhol portrait of Mao is going up for auction on Chinese soil (Quartz)