Mr. Murakami at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Christie’s auction house will partner with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and his Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. on an upcoming auction that will raise money for survivors of the earthquake that struck Japan last March. Mr. Murakami will select the participating artists himself for the special auction, which will be held at Christie’s New York.

Via the press release:

“The past months have already seen the rise of many such projects around the world,” Takashi Murakami continued. “But as a Japanese artist working inside the global contemporary art community, I possessed the strong realization that we must contribute something of our own initiative. The support and encouragement of Mr. François Pinault and Christie’s has been vital in helping to reach that goal. I hope through this project to send a message to the people in the damage-struck areas that we are still with them and will continue to provide support.”

Presumably, most of the artists will come from Mr. Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki collective. The press release doesn’t say if Mr. Murakami’s own work will be auctioned, but you’d imagine that he would want to appear wholly philanthropic by removing himself from the auction. On the flip side, he did recently say that he feels his works are overvalued, so he’d be knowingly depriving Japan of charity funds if he doesn’t participate. Just kidding, it’s fine either way.

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