«Secchu Bijin Zu,» also known as «Beauty in the Snow,» a painting by legendary 19th-century Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, especially famous for «The Great Wave off Kanagawa,» was sold at auction for 621 million yen (roughly $4 million), marking a record price for a single work by the artist, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
The nearly one-meter-tall canvas, which depicts a courtesan standing in falling snow and holding an umbrella, went under the hammer on Nov. 8 at an auction in Tokyo. The Sapporo-based furniture retailer Nitori Co. placed the winning bid and said it plans to exhibit the piece at the Otaru Ukiyo-e Museum within the Otaru Art Base in Hokkaido.
Notably, the starting estimate was 40 million to 60 million yen (approximately $260,000 to $388,000).
According to NHK, a full set of «Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,» a series of 46 woodblock prints by Hokusai that includes «The Great Wave off Kanagawa,» was sold at auction in the U.S. last March for around $3.5 million.
Separately, in October, «California» by Yves Klein was sold for €18.4 million at auction in Paris.
