The prices of even outstanding pre-Meiji works in particular are falling, basically because older works lack credibility.

A November 2003 Sotheby's sale of major 19th- and 20th-century Japanese woodblock prints from the Huguette Berès collection, for example, saw prominent works sell strongly. But other, notable prints such as "Fuji Seen from Ushibori in Hitachi Province" and "Turban-shell Hall of the Five-Hundred-Rakan Temple" by the great Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) barely topped their estimates of 3,000-4,000 euros and 5,000-6,000 euros, respectively.