of the $20,000 lee kuan yew picture bottle

$20,000 FOR THIS BOTTLE: 46-year-old Dong Xue, China's best-known portrait painters, paints the portraits of MM Lee and Mrs Lee on snuff bottle.

Take the valuable snuff bottles, painted with extreme precision by China artist Dong Xue. They feature Mao Zedong, Princess Diana, Teresa Teng, Queen Elizabeth, on one side with some floral designs on the reverse. Except for this precious one, worth $20,000. A Singaporean collector requested that the crystal snuff bottle be painted with the likeness of Mr Lee Kuan Yew on one side and Mrs Lee Kuan Yew on the other side.

Anything to do with copyright costs?

Mr Ng Geok Soon, of Dong Lee Investment, the exhibitors, said: 'None involved. There's no image copyright for this, in painting.' The laughing portraits of Mr and Mrs Lee meticulously painted inside the 8x5cm bottles were chosen from a book and a website. 'The artist selected his favourite photos of the couple which the collector, a Mr T, was happy with,' said Mr Ng.

Dong Xue, 46, from Hebei, is one of China's best-known portrait painters. He has not met Mr and Mrs Lee before but has 'great respect for Lee Kuan Yew's leadership, taking Singapore from poverty to this stage'.