LONDON, Oct.30 (People's Daily Online) -- To celebrate Parasol unit’s 10th Anniversary, the 31 works donated by leading contemporary artists including Chris Ofili, Antony Gormley, Michaël Borremans and Luc Tuymans realised a total of £2,092,250 at Sotheby’s last weekend.

Parasol unit’s Founder/Director, Ziba Ardalan said: “I am absolutely delighted with this wonderful result which has surpassed our wildest dreams. I want to thank all the artists who donated works for their extraordinary generosity which has enabled us to look towards the future with optimism.”

The Sotheby’s sale was led by The Skirt, 2005 (est. £150,000-250,000), by the Belgian painter and filmmaker Michaël Borremans, which sold for £926,500, breaking the previous record for the artist which stood at £396,600. It was fitting that a record for the artist should fall during the “Towards Tomorrow” auction, as it was at Parasol unit that Borreman’s staged his first London exhibition in 2005. There were new records for the Scottish artist Charles Avery and the Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn. Avery’s drawing, Feeding the Gulls, sold for £11,250, part of his continuing project to describe a fictional island, while Josephsohn’s figurative brass bust, donated by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, achieved £37,500, easily exceeding the pre-sale estimate of £20,000-£30,000.

Parasol unit also collaborated with Paddle8.com, who auctioned half of the donated works online, raising an additional £126,700. The proceeds raised from both auctions, as well as a private sale of £160,000, totals £2.37 million which will go towards Parasol unit’s ambitious exhibition and education programme.