Yayoi Kusama Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

Created in the same year as her iconic Infinity Nets series, Kusama's 1959 Untitled (Nets) exemplifies her mastery of abstraction. The painting features an endless expanse of dotted patterns on a white background, reflecting her enduring fascination with repetition. Kusama described the effect as being “enfolded in a magical curtain of mysterious, invisible power.” This oil on canvas fetched £8.5 million at Phillips' 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, significantly surpassing its estimated range of £4-5.7 million.

A Flower (2014) is a large-scale purple dahlia stretching its vibrant blooms across an orange canvas, radiating vitality and dynamism. Kusama has an extraordinary talent for taking an object and imbuing it with life, almost to the point of a surrealist aesthetic. Staying true to her artistic style of animating figures with dots, Kusama’s work explores universal truths and spiritual projection. This piece was brought to market in 2023 and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong for £7.8 million.

Pumpkin (L) (2014), a bronze sculpture by Kusama, features her iconic polka dot motif in a striking large-scale piece. This work is the largest in the series, marked as edition 8 of 8 with 2 artist proofs, and represents the first time a sculpture of this scale has appeared at auction. Previous editions from this series have been publicly displayed and widely recognised globally. In April 2023, Sotheby's Hong Kong auctioned this exceptional artwork, achieving £6.4 million, setting a new record for Kusama's sculptural practice.

Created during Kusama’s time in New York, Interminable Net #4 (1959) is part of her renowned Infinity Net series. Kusama drew inspiration for these works from a view she once had from an airplane window, where she “saw ever-expanding nets on the ocean.” The layered, painterly effect on the canvas evokes the sensation of ripples across water. Interminable Net #4 sold for £6 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2019, marking one of the highest prices ever achieved for a Kusama artwork on the secondary market.

Flowers (2015) departs from Kusama's iconic pumpkin motif while capturing the essence of her artistry through its portrayal of flowers. In this large-scale piece, each bloom seems to detach from its stem, radiating a unique allure and lifelike quality. Making its auction debut at Christie's Hong Kong, this rare work established itself among Kusama's most sought-after pieces, achieving a remarkable sale price exceeding £6 million.

Kusama’s Pumpkin (LPASG) (2013) features a bright yellow gourd covered in black polka dots set against a dark, fractured background. The dots, a signature motif in Kusama’s work, appear throughout her art–on naked bodies, canvases, and even in her own clothing and hair. In this piece, the dots both define the contours of the three–dimensional object and “obliterate” its form, transforming it into the sum of infinite elements. In December 2021, this artwork sold for £6 million at Christie’s Hong Kong, marking one of the highest prices ever achieved for Kusama’s works on the secondary market.

Kusama's Pumpkin paintings have gained remarkable acclaim, consistently fetching millions at auction. In these works, Kusama masterfully depicts pumpkins in various sizes and poses, always set against her iconic netted background. Through imaginative placement and lifelike rendering, she elevates the ordinary pumpkin to the status of a portrait. The paintings feature pumpkins in a range of colours, including purple, green, and red, with yellow being the most sought-after. This particular large-scale painting made its auction debut at Phillips in March 2023, achieving an impressive £5.7 million.

Painted at the age of 70, this large-scale masterpiece is a testament to Kusama's enduring talent and creativity. The monumental triptych features countless “infinity nets” set against a radiant golden backdrop, a theme Kusama revisited throughout her career, captivating viewers visually and cerebrally. This remarkable artwork made its second auction appearance at Christie's in November 2022, landing among Kusama's top-selling works. It achieved £5.7 million, doubling its previous sale price from 2019.

Another iconic pumpkin artwork, A-Pumpkin (BAGN8) (2011), features a vertical composition with the pumpkin adorned in dots from stem to base, set against Kusama's signature netted backdrop. This piece appeared at Sotheby's in April 2023, achieving an impressive £5.6 million, further underscoring the desirability of Kusama's pumpkin-themed works.

Pumpkin (M) (2014) is part of the second-largest series of Kusama's bronze pumpkin sculptures, adorned with her iconic dot pattern. These sculptures evoke a sense of nostalgia, transporting viewers back to familiar childhood memories. As edition 8 of 8, this piece made its auction debut at Sotheby's New York, achieving an impressive £5.4 million, making it the second-highest selling bronze pumpkin work on the public market.