Hokusai's Great Wave Sets Auction Record at Christie's New York

Christie's Asian Art Week in New York, running from March 21 to 30, 2023, achieved record results. The highlight was Katsushika Hokusai's iconic woodblock print "Under the Well of the Great Wave Off Kanagawa" (ca. 1831), which sold for $2,760,000 at the Japanese and Korean Art sale on March 21, shattering the previous record of $1.5 million for the same print in 2021. The print, measuring 265 x 390 mm, is from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" and was preserved in a family collection since the early 1900s, exhibited at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen in 1993. The sale total for Japanese and Korean art reached $11,413,992, 253% above the pre-sale estimate, with bidders from 22 countries including Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. A White Porcelain Moon Jar from the Joseon Dynasty (18th century) also set a record for Korean ceramics, selling for over $4.5 million. On March 22, two sales—South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art and Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art—together exceeded $15 million, achieving multiple auction records.