Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama sold her art for $2, decades later one painting hit $10.5 million

In 1966, visitors arriving at the Venice Biennale were confronted by an unusual sight. Spread across the lawn outside the Italian Pavilion were 1,500 shimmering silver spheres, each catching fragments of the surrounding architecture, the sky and anyone who stopped to look.Reportedly, among them stood Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, dressed in a gold kimono. She had not been formally invited to exhibit at the Biennale, yet she had found a way to put her work in front of its international audience. The installation was called Narcissus Garden, and Kusama did something even more unexpected with it. She began offering the mirrored balls to visitors for about $2 each.It was part artwork, part performance and part provocation aimed directly at the art market. Decades later, Kusama would become one of the world's most recognisable contemporary artists. Her polka dots, pumpkins and Infinity Mirror Rooms would turn her into a global cultural figure, while her paintings and sculptures began selling for millions.According to Reuters, her 1959 painting Untitled (Nets) eventually sold for $10.5 million at Phillips in New York in 2022, setting her auction record.Kusama turned 1,500 mirrored sphere...