A rare complete set of 46 ukiyo-e woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai featuring Mt. Fuji of Japan will go up for sale at Christie's in New York in March.
The auction house said it expects the prints in the series titled "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," made between 1830 and 1833, to fetch a total price "in the millions" of U.S. dollars.
"The last time a complete set appeared on the market was more than 20 years ago, in 2002," said Takaaki Murakami, the head of Christie's Japanese and Korean art department in New York.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a master Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print maker in Edo, now Tokyo. The Mt. Fuji series, which is among his most celebrated work, depicts the peak of Japan's highest mountain, southwest of Tokyo, from different vantage points in different seasons, according to information on Christie's website.
"Some of the prints in this set are earlier impressions, while others are later impressions. This series was not issued as a set but rather was published in several installments," said Murakami.
In March, a single print of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" from the same series sold for $2.76 million at Christie's. Murakami said the earlier auction is not "comparable" to the upcoming one for a full set.
According to the auction house, the seller is a U.S. citizen.
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