JJapan

Hokusai’s Great Wave Sells for Record Amount To Settle Billionaire’s Debt

  • November 26, 2025

In a landmark auction of 125 Asian masterpieces at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Saturday, Japan’s Okada Museum of Art achieved a stunning $88 million (plus fees) in sales. This figure significantly exceeded the presale estimate of $50 million, thanks in large part to the record-breaking performances of ukiyo-e masterpieces by Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, including The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa.

The auction’s primary purpose, however, was highly unusual: Japanese billionaire and museum founder Kazuo Okada mandated the sale to settle a $50 million legal bill stemming from a long-running business dispute with casino mogul Steve Wynn. Okada, who assembled the museum’s world-famous collection over three decades, reportedly aimed to settle the substantial debt owed to his former law firm through the auction’s proceeds. 

by TokyoWeekender

10 comments

  1. Note that there are several “originals” of The Great Wave in existence. I don’t know how many there currently are.

    Edit: Apparently there has been some trouble here with the word “Several.” Usually paintings are often only one. Using “several” just indicates here that there are multiples, which was the only point I was trying to make. That’s why looking up the exact number wasn’t necessary. I don’t know why that was difficult for people to extrapolate here. Please encourage your children and friends to read books. It’s those rectangular things with paper pages.

  2. >Okada fought back legally and prevailed in 2018, securing a massive $2.6 billion out-of-court settlement from Wynn and Wynn Resorts. However, Okada then refused to pay the $50 million fee presented by his own legal team, Bartlit Beck

  4. Wtaf… He got 2.6 billion out of court but then refused to pay the 50m?

    This guy is into some serious shady stuff.

  5. Why sell all the art to pay a debt when you are so rich you could do other things? I don’t understand rich people problems

  6. Selling museum pieces to settle a debt that you incurred by refusing to pay the legal team that requested a paltry fraction of the money they won you in your multi billion dollar lawsuit.

    Doesn’t it ever just make you fucking seethe?

    Watching the fucking madness of people with so much more money than you will ever have.

    I just want to make ends meet and instead I get to struggle paycheck to paycheck while somebody guts a museum just to be petty and greedy…

  7. If you look into Wikipedia you will see Okada’s name in the “Cheap Ass Idiot” section.

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