Malala portrait fetches $110,900

A painting of young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai has fetched $A110,900 at a US auction with the money going to educate girls in Nigeria.

malala_protrait_aap.jpg

Workers hang a painting by Jonathan Yeo titled 'Girl Reading (Malala Yousafzai)' ahead of the auction. (AAP)

A painted portrait of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban, has fetched $A110,900 ($US102,500) at auction in New York - with the money going to female education in Nigeria.

The proceeds will be donated from her Malala Fund to a special fund designed to assist local NGOs working to educate girls and women in Nigeria, where more than 200 schoolgirls are missing after being snatched at gun point last month by extremists.

Auction house Christie's had estimated the portrait of the veiled teenager - done in 2013 by leading British artist Jonathan Yeo - would fetch $US60,000-$US80,000.

But after several bids it was snapped up on Wednesday in just a few minutes at a higher price.

Malala, now 16, was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012 over her outspoken views on education for girls in her home region of northwest Pakistan. After undergoing extensive medical treatment, she now lives in Britain.


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Source: AAP


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