Hokusai sells for $28 million

Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” did not sell for $28 million. It sold for HK$21.7 million, or about US$2.8 million, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on November 22, 2025. (scmp.com) (mymodernmet.com) The work’s formal title is “Under the Wave off Kanagawa,” and it is the best-known image from Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series. Sotheby’s sold a rare early impression from Japan’s Okada Museum of Art collection. (scmp.com) (artnews.com) The print nearly tripled its high estimate and set a new auction record for this image. More than 20 bids were placed over about eight minutes before a Japanese collector won it, according to The Straits Times. (mymodernmet.com) (straitstimes.com) The sale came from a larger Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction of 125 works from the Okada Museum of Art. The auction achieved white-glove status, meaning every lot sold, and totaled HK$688 million, or about US$88 million. (straitstimes.com) (tokyoweekender.com) Those works were consigned because museum founder Kazuo Okada needed to cover a $50 million legal bill tied to his long-running dispute with casino magnate Steve Wynn, ARTnews reported before the sale. (artnews.com) The result landed in a softer Hong Kong art market. South China Morning Post reported that Christie’s and Sotheby’s spring auctions in March 2025 fell to their lowest combined total in more than six years, even as demand held up for high-end works. (scmp.com 1) (scmp.com 2) That is why the Hokusai price drew attention: it suggested buyers were still willing to compete for rare, museum-grade material with strong provenance. Sotheby’s Asia chairman Nicolas Chow said the Okada sale drew bidders from Japan, China, Europe and the United States. (scmp.com) (sothebysrealty.co.uk) The correction matters because “$28 million” overstates the result by a factor of 10. The actual figure was still a record for “The Great Wave,” but it was a US$2.8 million auction, not a US$28 million one. (scmp.com)