On the Money

Takashi Murakami, “Tongari-kun” (2003–04)
Est. £3.5–4.5 million
Phillips de Pury & Company Contemporary, October 18, Lot 308

This 23-foot-high figure from 2003–04, executed in fiberglass, steel, oil, acrylic, and urethane paint, embodies the artist’s “Super-flat” theory, which states that there’s no boundary between high and low art, between the elite and the popular. With its signature otherworldly mix of Buddha and Disney, the piece is simultaneously zany and archaic, loaded with symbols from the artist’s chest of Eastern iconography.

Another version of this 3-D animation figure, from a series of four differently colored works, is part of the traveling Murakami retrospective, which is currently in Frankfurt at the Museum fur Moderne Kunst.

The Phillips piece has been consigned by New York collector Richard Sachs, who acquired it from the artist’s former primary New York dealer, Marianne Boesky, for approximately $1 million shortly after it was produced, according to an art-world source.

Murakami made headlines last May when “My Lonesome Cowboy” from 1998 fetched a record-shattering $15.1 million at Sotheby’s New York (est. $3–4 million). The artist, who was in the salesroom, yelled “Bonzai” as the hammer came down.

Courtesy Phillips de Pury & Company