Christie's brings back anime sale after US$1.4 million debut
Kaneda's motorbike is going back under the hammer. Christie's in New York will stage its second auction devoted to anime and manga material in October 2026 after a March debut took US$1.4 million including fees, more than four times its low estimate before fees, according to The Art Newspaper.
The new sale will be organised as a public viewing in New York on 8-12 October 2026, followed by an online sale — bidding conducted over the internet rather than in a saleroom — on 9-22 October 2026.
The catalogue centres on names many readers will know from television and film. It will feature works from Dragon Ball, Pokémon, Sailor Moon and films by Studio Ghibli in Japan. It will also offer original drawings by Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy, and soft vinyl figures from Ultraman, a science-fiction franchise that began in the 1960s.
Animation cels, the transparent sheets hand-painted and filmed to make cartoons, form a large part of the offer. They include original cels from Pokémon, Akira, My Neighbor Totoro and Dragon Ball Z. An original 1988 Akira cel of Kaneda riding his motorbike carries an estimate, the price range published before a sale, of US$5,000 to US$7,000.
Christie's turned to the category after testing demand in March. That first sale, Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Reimagines Tradition, was described as the first sale of its kind held at a major auction house. It spanned 40 lots including anime cel drawings, vintage film posters and Japanese artworks, according to earlier published sale information.
The numbers explain the return. The top anime work in March was Ito Ikuko's Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon sketch showing five main characters. It sold for US$88,900 with fees, almost 18 times its low estimate. Shiomi Ryosuke's 2019 Wolf and Armor, a take on samurai armour, sold for 35 times its low estimate and set an auction record for the metalwork artist.
That March sale paired subculture material with older and contemporary art. It traced a line from Katsushika Hokusai to Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara and included movie and television posters from Godzilla. The sale was overseen by Takaaki Murakami, Christie's head of Japanese and Korean art.
For fans watching from a phone, this means low starting prices and familiar characters. Bidding starts in the thousands. The drama is in the multiples.
