Nice to See You Again by Yoshitomo Nara made $15.4 million and was the top lot at Sotheby’s Now evening auction in New York last night. The monumental work epitomises the artist’s career-long exploration of themes of innocence, adolescence, and universal angst. Ostensibly innocuous, the rosy-cheeked, wide-eyed, kawaii girl peers toward the viewer with startling intensity; as one notices her chubby fist brandishing a knife however, any assumptions of vulnerability are undermined. Set against a vibrant periwinkle background Nara’s archetypal child is concurrently innocent and violent, docile and unruly, illustrating the radical potential of subversive and anarchic youth. The Now Evening Auction focussed on art executed in the last 20 years and brought in $71.8 million.