Original prints of ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai‘s iconic woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa are set to make their way to auction during the upcoming Asia Week New York event in September. Auction houses Bonhams and Christie’s will be auctioning off one print each.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, commonly known as “Great Wave”, is Hokusai’s most famed work and one of the most recognizable pieces of artwork in history. It was created in 1831 as part of a larger series of woodblock prints, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
A total of 1,000 prints of “Great Wave” were originally printed early on, with 7,000 more made later. It is estimated that 100 of these prints have survived.
The print offered by Bonhams has an estimated price of $700,000 to $900,000, and is described as “outstanding” and has never been shown to the public before.
“The color of the print is good with little fading. And most importantly, the print is innocent. There are no signs of in-painting, which occurs in a lot in examples of the Great Wave,” Jeff Olson, director of Japanese Art at Bonhams, told ARTnews.
Christie’s is offering a print that came from a private collector from Japan, with an estimated price of $500,000 to $700,000.
The demand for “Great Wave” prints has been on the rise in recent years. For example, Christie’s sold one print in 2023 for a staggering $2.8 million, a new record for the piece.
