Kicking off Christie’s Asian Art Week in New York, a complete set of Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” fetched a landmark price of $3,559,000, setting a new auction record for the artist. This sale underscored the enduring demand for Hokusai’s work: Last year, a single print The Great Wave off Kanagawa It sold for $2.76 million at Christie’s, setting the artist’s previous auction record.
The entire set was collected over 11 years by collector Jitendra V. Singh, a former professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “It is a once-in-a-generation honor to offer the complete set of Hokusai’s monumental Fuji series,” said Takaaki Murakami, Christie’s head of Japanese and Korean art. “We got a record result Thirty-six views and high prices for other important Hokusai prints continue the proud tradition of being the premier auction house for this artist”.
The auction, which brought together numerous works of Japanese and Korean art, brought in a total of $6,662,254, reaching 112% of its low estimate and 81% by lot. Other notable sales included Hokusai’s Beneath the Great Wave of Kanagawa Pool, which hammered $693,000. Other sales included Lee Ufan’s Without a title 1985 (1985), which doubled its low estimate at $138,000, and Utagawa Hiroshige’s Yellow rose (Yamabuki) and frogs (ca. 1832), which fetched more than 16 times its low estimate of $32,760.
In addition, some of Morita Shiryu’s works significantly exceeded their high estimates. the dragon (1996) fetched $100,800, above the high estimate of $60,000, and Yaku (to burn): complete burning of all strings (1956), with a high estimate of $7,000, brought $40,320.
Correction: An earlier version of this article described Jitendra V. Singh as a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is retired.
