Kusama's Small Pumpkin Has a Big Impact at Auction

A Yayoi Kusama pumpkin doesn’t have to be big to make an oversized impact at auction. A modestly sized painting, measuring 23cm by 16cm, sold for $495,773 in Tokyo on July 18, one of the highest-priced work sold globally that week.

The sale by Mainichi Auction Inc. helped Tokyo's total auction volume exceed $5.3m, including fees, for works priced above $25,000, according to HENI News data.

That was despite a work by Yoshitomo Nara, another high-profile Japanese artist, going unsold. His Mederu had a low estimate of about $247,000.

While works by Kusama are typically reliable sellers at auction, even the veteran Japanese artist suffers the occasional flop. A limited-edition Louis Vuitton travel trunk, Malle Courrier Lozine 110, which carried a low estimate of $44,000, went unsold at SBI Art Auction Tokyo on July 11.

From her polka-dot nude happenings in 1960s New York to her signature pumpkin fields and Infinity Rooms, the full sweep of Kusama's career is on display in her touring retrospective, which arrives at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum this fall.