# Yayoi Kusama Auction Market: Pumpkins, Infinity and Depth of Demand

> Source: LLB Auction (https://www.llb-auction.com/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/yayoi-kusama-s-market-pumpkins-infinity-and-depth-of-demand)
> Author: LLB Auction
> Published: August 2, 2026

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Most collectors meet Yayoi Kusama through a signed print rather than through an eight figure canvas. That is the practical shape of the Yayoi Kusama auction market. MutualArt catalogues 13,241 Kusama works offered at auction since 1998, while Artscapy's study of 2,523 results between 2018 and 2025 found that prints and editions accounted for more than half of all lots sold in 2025 yet generated only 11% of total auction revenue. Volume sits in the graphic work; value concentrates in a small number of paintings and sculptures. Anyone reading Yayoi Kusama auction data for the first time needs both figures at once, because they answer different questions: where the market can actually be entered, and what the top of it prices.

> **Key takeaways**
>
> - **Record.** The Yayoi Kusama auction record stands at $10,496,000 for Untitled (Nets), 1959, sold at Phillips New York in 2022, per MutualArt.
> - **Market shape.** Prints and editions were more than half of all Yayoi Kusama auction lots sold in 2025 and 11% of revenue, on Artscapy's dataset of 2,523 results covering 2018 to 2025.
> - **Motif depth.** The Pumpkin series carries 1,003 recorded auction appearances, with trailing twelve month values from £2,082 to £94,321, per MyArtBroker.
> - **Documentation.** The Yayoi Kusama Foundation issues no certificate of authenticity for prints, and its December 2025 notice states that forged certificates have been identified.
> - **Geography.** Japan produced £27.7m of Kusama print sales between 2019 and 2024 and 66% of print sales in 2024, per MyArtBroker.

## Where the Print and Multiple Market Begins

An **edition** is a fixed number of impressions pulled from the same matrix, each one inscribed in the form 62/120, where the second figure states the size of the run. Kusama's editions vary widely: the Geist collector's guide places the usual range between 20 and 300 impressions per work, and that spread governs price more than any other single variable. Alongside the numbered run sit the proofs. An **artist's proof (AP)** is an impression reserved for the artist outside the numbered edition, a **printer's proof (PP)** goes to the workshop, and an **hors commerce (HC)** impression is marked as not for sale. MyArtBroker records that the 2004 screenprint portfolio Morning is Here was issued in an edition of 95 with 13 artist's proofs and 11 hors commerce impressions, all hand signed, dated and numbered by Kusama. Infinity Nets (YBL), also 2004, ran to only 40 impressions.

A **screenprint**, the technique behind most of her graphic work, forces ink through a stencilled mesh onto paper, one colour at a time, which suits her flat fields and hard edged repetition. Lithography and intaglio appear more often in her earlier decades.

| Segment | Typical edition | Indicative recorded range | Anchor result |
| :- | :- | :- | :- |
| Screenprints, widely issued motifs | 100 to 300 | £2,000 to £15,000 | Pumpkin (G), Kusama 151, 1992, published estimate £9,000 to £14,000 |
| Screenprints, scarce motifs and colourways | 20 to 100 | £15,000 to £130,000 | Shanghai Pumpkin, 2010, published estimate £80,000 to £130,000 |
| Proofs and very small runs | under 40, plus AP, PP and HC | above the numbered run | Infinity Nets (YBL), 2004, edition of 40 |
| Complete portfolios | 7 sold at auction in five years | £228,512 to £337,682 | Amour Pour Toujours, complete set, £337,682 |
| Unique paintings and sculpture | unique | six to eight figures | Untitled (Nets), 1959, $10,496,000, Phillips New York, 2022 |

Edition ranges come from Geist and MyArtBroker; the price columns report published estimates and recorded results, not offers. MyArtBroker's series data puts the trailing twelve month spread for Pumpkin works between £2,082 and £94,321, which is the clearest statement of how wide the Yayoi Kusama auction entry point runs. Run size drives that spread in every editioned market, as [Damien Hirst spot prints and the volume question](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/damien-hirst-s-multiples-spots-spins-and-the-volume-question) shows at a much larger print volume.

## Why Pumpkins and Infinity Nets Anchor Demand

Kusama dated the pumpkin to a childhood encounter. In her autobiography Infinity Net she recalled: “The first time I ever saw a pumpkin was when I was in elementary school and went with my grandfather to visit a big seed-harvesting ground.” The fruit, she added, “immediately began speaking to me in a most animated manner.” The motif therefore carries a documented origin rather than a stylistic one, and documented motifs price more consistently.

MyArtBroker counts 1,003 auction appearances for the Pumpkin series, a peak hammer price of £115,000 within the series, and an average annual growth rate of 6.13% across its tracked history. That growth figure is backward looking and describes a series average, not any individual sheet. The nets carry the top of the Yayoi Kusama auction market instead: Untitled (Nets), 1959, at $10,496,000 remains her highest recorded result, per MutualArt, while Pumpkin (L), 2014, reached £6.4m at Sotheby's Hong Kong in April 2023, the strongest published result for her sculpture.

Two motifs therefore absorb most of the demand, and the Flowers group trails them. The same concentration runs through [a collector's map of how blue chip artists' prices move](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/the-names-that-move-the-market-a-collector-s-map-of-the-contemporary-canon).

## Reading a Yayoi Kusama Auction Result Without Overreading It

A published result is not a price the next seller can assume. The **hammer price** is the sum at which the auctioneer closes bidding. The **buyer's premium** is the house's charge added on top, 20% at LLB Auction and commonly higher at the international houses, so a database figure may be either the hammer or the total, and the two differ by a fifth or more. The **estimate** is the pre-sale range the house publishes; the **reserve** is the confidential minimum below which the consignor does not sell.

Concentration then distorts any average. Artscapy found that the five highest-priced works accounted for 31% of annual market value in 2025, and MutualArt reports that Kusama paintings averaged $629,802 over a trailing twelve month window while sculptures averaged $53,017 in the same period. An average drawn across 13,241 lots describes the catalogue, not the sheet in front of you.

Reading Yayoi Kusama auction history descriptively means building comparables at the level of motif, year, medium, edition size, colourway and condition, then setting aside the outliers that made the headlines. The Artnet Price Database and the MutualArt artist pages index every Yayoi Kusama auction lot by medium, date and selling house, and both record unsold lots, which matter as much as the sold ones.

## Condition, Edition and the Documents That Travel With a Work

Condition is unusually visible in Kusama's graphic work. The precise registration of her dots and nets means a small defect reads immediately against the pattern. Three faults recur in catalogue descriptions: **foxing**, the reddish brown spots caused by damp and fungal activity in the paper; **toning**, an overall yellowing of the sheet; and light fading, which is irreversible once the inks have shifted.

Documentation is the harder problem. The Yayoi Kusama Foundation [stated in a December 2025 notice](https://yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en/news/news20251201/) that it had detected “an increasing number of counterfeit Yayoi Kusama prints being offered for sale in Japan and overseas” and that “forged certificates of authenticity have also been identified.” The notice asks buyers to exercise “extreme caution when purchasing artworks through auctions, online marketplaces, or secondary galleries” and confirms the Foundation is “unable to provide any authentication services.” The [Artwork Registration Program operated by YAYOI KUSAMA Inc.](https://yayoi-kusama.jp/en/registration/) issues a Registration Card bearing a registration number, but it covers original works only, and states that the card “is not a certificate of appraisal or a document proving the value of the artwork.”

That absence separates her from two artists collectors often hold beside her. Banksy's Pest Control Office is the sole body issuing certificates for his work, charging £100 plus VAT for a print and stapling half a torn Di-Faced Tenner to each certificate, the mechanism examined in [Banksy at auction and the Pest Control authentication question](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/banksy-at-auction-editions-authentication-and-the-pest-control-question). The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts closed its authentication board in 2011 and directs enquiries to Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 to 1987, the reference described in [how Andy Warhol prints are valued through editions, stamps and condition](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/andy-warhol-prints-reading-editions-stamps-and-condition). Kusama has neither instrument for editions, and her studio's own email based verification stopped in 2019, leaving Yayoi Kusama auction buyers to verify by comparison.

Huw Lougher, Director of Lougher Contemporary, states the test plainly: “The markings are key, and have changed over time, so find other examples of the specific print edition you are looking at buying and compare the markings carefully.” MyArtBroker takes the same line on origin, noting that “a Kusama print that lacks clear publisher or printer information should prompt closer scrutiny”; the Tokyo publisher Toki-no-Wasuremono and the printer Ryoichi Ishida recur in the paperwork of genuine impressions.

![Sheet of fine art paper under low raking light beside a brass magnifier and a printed condition report](https://renderings.laboetie.io/media/RymkFbe5beV9j9JsQ8Z0L/w2560)

## Where a New Collector Sensibly Begins

The entry decision is a sequence of checks, not a single judgement. Each one narrows the field before a bid is placed at a Yayoi Kusama auction, and each is answerable from the catalogue entry and the condition report.

1. **Motif.** Pumpkins and Infinity Nets carry the deepest demand, with 1,003 recorded Pumpkin appearances per MyArtBroker; secondary motifs trade thinner and resell slower.
2. **Edition size.** A run of 300 and a run of 40 are different objects; ask for the stated edition, the proof count, and whether the sheet is numbered or a proof.
3. **Signature and numbering.** Hand signed, dated and numbered impressions carry stronger documentation, though MyArtBroker notes an absent signature is not automatically a red flag on every series.
4. **Publisher and printer.** A named publisher such as Toki-no-Wasuremono, with a printer credit, gives the sheet a traceable origin.
5. **Condition report.** Read it for foxing, toning, fading, trimmed margins and stains, and require photographs of the margins and verso, not only the image.
6. **Provenance.** **Provenance** is the documented chain of ownership from the publisher forward: gallery invoices, prior auction records and exhibition history.
7. **Comparables.** Pull five to ten Yayoi Kusama auction results for the same motif, year and edition from the Artnet Price Database or MutualArt before setting a limit.
8. **Total cost.** Add the buyer's premium, shipping, insurance, applicable VAT and, inside the European Union, the artist's resale right, before comparing a bid to a published result.

## Three Worked Scenarios at Yayoi Kusama Auction Level

These scenarios use published estimate bands and disclosed fee structures to show what a bid actually costs. They are illustrations of arithmetic, not forecasts.

**A widely issued screenprint.** A Pumpkin sheet from a run of roughly 120, in the band MyArtBroker reports for Pumpkin (G), Kusama 151, 1992, at £9,000 to £14,000. A hammer of £9,000 at a 20% buyer's premium costs £10,800 before shipping and insurance.

**A scarce motif.** Shanghai Pumpkin, 2010, carries a published estimate of £80,000 to £130,000 on MyArtBroker's series page. A hammer at the low estimate of £80,000 costs £96,000 on the same 20% premium, a difference of £16,000 that no Yayoi Kusama auction headline shows.

**The floor of the range.** MyArtBroker's trailing twelve month low for the Pumpkin series is £2,082. At a 20% premium that sheet costs £2,498, the honest bottom of the market for the motif, and it usually reflects a later, larger or unsigned edition rather than a bargain on a scarce one.

## FAQ: What Collectors Ask About Kusama at Auction

### What is the Yayoi Kusama auction record?

MutualArt records Untitled (Nets), painted in 1959, at $10,496,000, sold at Phillips New York in 2022, as the highest Yayoi Kusama auction result since its records begin in 1998. Her sculpture record is separate: Pumpkin (L), 2014, reached £6.4m at Sotheby's Hong Kong in April 2023. Both figures sit far above the print market, where MyArtBroker reports an average sales price above £22,000 across five years.

### Do Kusama prints come with a certificate of authenticity?

No. The Yayoi Kusama Foundation does not issue certificates of authenticity for prints, and its December 2025 notice confirms it cannot provide authentication services or answer authenticity enquiries on prints. The Artwork Registration Program run by YAYOI KUSAMA Inc. covers original works only and explicitly excludes prints and editions. Any document presented as a Kusama print certificate is evidence to verify, not proof.

### How much does edition size change a print's price?

Substantially. The Geist collector's guide puts Kusama edition sizes between 20 and 300 impressions, and MyArtBroker's Pumpkin data spans £2,082 to £94,321 over a trailing twelve month window across that range. Infinity Nets (YBL), 2004, was issued in an edition of 40, while Morning is Here, also 2004, ran to 95 plus 24 proofs. Smaller runs of the same motif consistently record higher results.

### What does the buyer's premium add to a hammer price?

The premium is a percentage of the hammer price charged by the house to the buyer, added on top of the winning bid. LLB Auction discloses a buyer's premium of 20%, so a hammer of €10,000 costs €12,000. International houses commonly charge more, and premiums are tiered by price band. A published figure may quote the hammer alone or the premium inclusive total, so confirm which one a Yayoi Kusama auction database reports.

### Where do most Kusama prints sell?

Japan. MyArtBroker reports £27.7m of Kusama print sales from 1,125 sales in Japan between 2019 and 2024, and 66% of all Kusama print sales in 2024. South Korea and Hong Kong follow. European and North American volume is materially lower, which affects comparable pricing and shipping cost when a buyer bids across regions. The French treatment of the same market is at [le marché de Yayoi Kusama, éditions et profondeur de la demande](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/le-marche-de-yayoi-kusama-editions-motifs-et-profondeur-de-la-demande).

## How LLB Auction Serves a Kusama Collector

**Curated intake.** LLB Auction rejects roughly 40% of works submitted for consignment. The rejection is the product: what reaches the catalogue has cleared a documented threshold on condition, edition and ownership history.

**Documented condition.** Every lot carries per-lot due diligence on certificates, ownership history and conservation records, plus a three-page condition report published before bidding opens. On editions, that report states edition size, inscription, publisher where known, and every fault visible under raking light.

**Disclosed cost.** The buyer's premium is 20% and the seller's commission is 10%, both published before the sale, with no added charges at checkout. Typical lots run from €800 to €50,000, and sales are timed online formats of 7 to 14 days. The Contemporary Art Spring 2026 sale of 26 May 2026 offered 25 lots, of which 23 sold, for roughly €39,480 in gross hammer.

Works by Yayoi Kusama pass through that intake alongside Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami and Keith Haring, and every Yayoi Kusama auction comparable is read before an estimate is set. The current sale, with each lot's condition report attached, is listed at llb-auction.com.

## Conclusion

The artist's market splits cleanly in two, and the split is the whole point. Trophy paintings and bronzes set the headlines and absorb the value, with Artscapy putting the top five works at 31% of annual market value in 2025. Editions carry the volume, sustain liquidity, and open a door at four figures rather than seven.

A collector who works from motif, edition size, publisher, condition report and comparables, and who prices the buyer's premium into the bid before raising it, is reading the Yayoi Kusama auction market the way it behaves rather than the way its records are reported. The documentation gap around her editions is real, and it makes the paperwork attached to a lot the first thing to examine. The Yayoi Kusama auction record will keep moving; the discipline that prices an edition will not.

## Sources

**Further reading**

- [A collector's map of how blue chip artists' prices move](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/the-names-that-move-the-market-a-collector-s-map-of-the-contemporary-canon)
- [Banksy at auction and the Pest Control authentication question](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/banksy-at-auction-editions-authentication-and-the-pest-control-question)
- [How Andy Warhol prints are valued through editions, stamps and condition](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/andy-warhol-prints-reading-editions-stamps-and-condition)
- [Damien Hirst spot prints and the volume question](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/damien-hirst-s-multiples-spots-spins-and-the-volume-question)
- [Le marché de Yayoi Kusama, éditions et profondeur de la demande](/insights/ways-of-seeing/the-contemporary-canon/le-marche-de-yayoi-kusama-editions-motifs-et-profondeur-de-la-demande)

**References**

- [Important Notice: Counterfeit Yayoi Kusama Artworks](https://yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en/news/news20251201/) : Yayoi Kusama Foundation, 2025
- [Artwork Registration Program](https://yayoi-kusama.jp/en/registration/) : YAYOI KUSAMA Inc., 2025
- [Yayoi Kusama, artist page and auction results](https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Yayoi-Kusama/7D8654193084E33E) : MutualArt, 2026
- [Yayoi Kusama past auction results](https://www.artnet.com/artists/yayoi-kusama/past-auction-results) : Artnet Price Database, 2026
- [Yayoi Kusama Auction Market Analysis: From Prints to Trophies](https://artscapy.com/view-post/yayoi-kusama-market-report) : Artscapy, 2026
- [Pumpkins: meaning, analysis and auction results](https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-yayoi-kusama/collection-pumpkins) : MyArtBroker, 2026
- [Yayoi Kusama: the art market's true power player?](https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-yayoi-kusama/guides/yayoi-kusama-art-market-true-power-player) : MyArtBroker, 2025
- [How to authenticate Yayoi Kusama prints](https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-yayoi-kusama/guides/how-to-authenticate-yayoi-kusama-prints) : MyArtBroker, 2025
- [A collector's guide to Yayoi Kusama's prints and multiples](https://geistmc.com/our-artists/yayoi-kusama/a-collectors-guide-to-yayoi-kusamas-prints-and-multiples/) : Geist, 2025
- [Collecting Yayoi Kusama prints with confidence: a guide to authenticity](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/collecting-yayoi-kusama-prints-confidence-guide-huw-lougher) : Huw Lougher, Lougher Contemporary, 2025
- [Andy Warhol Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 to 1987](https://warholfoundation.org/warhol/andy-warhol-prints-a-catalogue-raisonne-1962-1987/) : The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2025
- [Pest Control Office authentication](https://pestcontroloffice.com/auth1.asp) : Pest Control Office, 2025
- [Pumpkin spiced Yayoi Kusama, reproducing the Infinity Net autobiography passage](https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/pumpkins-kusama/) : DailyArt Magazine, 2024