A $5 M. Yayoi Kusama Painting That Has Never Been Exhibited Leads Bonhams Hong Kong Sale

Infinity, a never publicly seen painting by Yayoi Kusama is coming to auction at Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary Art sale in Hong Kong next week. The red-and-black painting from 1995 comes with an estimate of over $5 million. 

The painting is a rare example of Kusama combining two of her most well-known motifs, dots and the infinity nets. Compositionally the work is split in two, with black dots on a red background on the right side and a black and red net on the left. 

In a statement, Bonhams called the work “immersive and compelling…The endlessly looping and repeating whorls serve as a key motif reused throughout her career, reflecting both her personal history and inner state.”

According to a report released earlier this year, Kusama was the highest selling contemporary artist in 2023. Her work earned $80.9 million at auction that year, more than $30 million that the previous year’s top seller, David Hockney.

The most expensive Kusama sold last year was the 2024 painting A Flower, which brought in almost $10 million during an auction at Christie’s Hong Kong. 

In April 2023 a group of five works by Kusama, all of which were produced within the last 20 years, sold for $22.9 million during a Sotheby’s evening sale, also in Hong Kong.

In recent years Kusama’s popularity in the art market has skyrocketed, with some calling her cultural proliferation, bolstered in 2023 by a retrospective at the M+ Museum and a widely publicized Louis Vuitton campaign, the Kusama Industrial Complex.