Panda dung Venus de Milo sells for £30,000

A 24-inch high replica of the Venus de Milo, sculpted from giant panda dung, has sold for £30,000 to a prominent Swiss art collector. Zhu Cheng, a Chinese sculptor, created the statue with the help of nine 11 year-old art students in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, the home of a giant panda breeding center.

It has already been purchased by Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman who owns the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, for 300,000 yuan (£30,000). Mr Sigg, who was formerly the Swiss ambassador to China, said that he thought the statue was "full of creativity and innovation".

"We made the statue in October," said Mr Zhu. "We took a clay mold of the statue and then pasted panda dung onto it using vegetable glue," he added. "I have been thinking about using panda dung in my work for years. After all, pandas are China's national treasure, so anything relating to them is interesting.

"It was quite hard to get hold of the dung, however. The first time I applied they declined, and I had to write a letter explaining what I was going to do with it." The statue is currently on display at a charity exhibition at the Zhengzhou Art Museum in Henan province, where it has drawn large crowds.