By IANS,
Caracas : A painting by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez while he was in prison has sold for 550,000 bolivares ($256, 000) in an auction organised to raise funds for election campaigning, EFE news agency reported Wednesday.
The painting titled “La luna de Yare” (The Moon of Yare) fetched 20 times the minimum bid price of 30,000 bolivares at the auction held Tuesday in the Alba Caracas hotel here.
The objective of holding the auction was to raise funds for the election campaign of the governing Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), which was founded by Chavez.
Chavez had painted the work in 1993 while he was in prison at the Yare jail in the state of Miranda, where he spent almost two years after leading a failed February 1992 coup against then-President Carlos Andres Perez.
The leftist leader donated the painting at a public event in May with an aim to help raise funds for his party for the the municipal and regional elections to be held in November.
According to press reports, the painting was jointly bought by three businessmen.
Venezuela pegs the bolivares at an official exchange rate of 2.15 per dollar under restrictions imposed in 2003. But in the black market, the currency is exchanged at 3.65 per dollar.