The nation's three major auction houses are hosting the year's first art sales this month, enabling investors and art lovers to buy famous works by major artists.
This year's spring auctions consist of modern and contemporary pieces by both Korean and foreign artists, from Park Soo-keun and Kim Hwan-ki to Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Andy Warhol. Korean traditional artworks and handwritings of former presidents such as Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee will... show more
The nation's three major auction houses are hosting the year's first art sales this month, enabling investors and art lovers to buy famous works by major artists.
This year's spring auctions consist of modern and contemporary pieces by both Korean and foreign artists, from Park Soo-keun and Kim Hwan-ki to Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Andy Warhol. Korean traditional artworks and handwritings of former presidents such as Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee will also be put up for sale.
The pre-auction estimates of sales from the three major auctions are expected to add up to about W16 billion (US$1=W1,129).
Seoul Auction prepared a special auction event for first-time bidders which included a variety of artworks priced from W1 million to W40 million.
K Auction hosted its spring auction sales on Wednesday and sold more than 70 percent of the items for a total of W4.8 billion, more than double the amount of last year.
The volume of auction sales in Korea's art market plunged by 41 percent last year from 2008 due to the drop in art prices following the global financial crisis. However, as the global economy is showing signs of recovery, experts predict that the art market will make a turnaround this year.
They forecast that the domestic art industry will be able to see rapid and sustainable growth in the future as Koreans have started to view artwork as an investment asset thanks to the growth of the market over the past few years. show less
