Yoshitomo Nara Painting Fetches a Whopping $25 Million USD at Sotheby's Hong Kong

The Japanese artist’s most expensive work ever sold at auction.

A large-scale painting by acclaimed Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara hammered down a most impressive sale price of $25 million USD at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in Hong Kong this past weekend. The sale marks the most expensive piece ever sold by the artist at auction.

The muted-toned work titled ‘Knife Behind Back’ (2000) measures roughly seven by seven feet wide and portrays Nara’s signature, angry-eyed female subject clad in a red collard dress. It’s considered to be one of the artist’s largest works ever created in his extensive oeuvre with Nara having created the piece when he returned to Japan after spending twelve years in Germany.

Nara’s previous auction record was set at Christie’s Hong Kong back in May this year. The artist’s ‘Sleepless Night (Cat)’ (1999) snapped up $4.45 million USD — nearly one-fifth of the total amount of his latest sale.

Elsewhere in art, take a look at the best artworks releasing this week.

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