At a packed K Auction room in Seoul’s upscale Sinsa-dong late last month, the energy in the room shifted suddenly – palpable – when bids opened for City – Vanishing Landscape 717 (2022) by Jung Young-joo, a painter known for her depictions of hillside shantytowns.
Starting at 45 million won ($31,069), the piece soared to 110 million won after a flurry of bids, lifting total sales for the evening to 3.5 billion won, about 50% higher than a year earlier.
The previous night, rival Seoul Auction also reported brisk sales.
A David Hockney print, initially priced at 200 million won, went for 370 million won after intense bidding from local and overseas art enthusiasts and collectors.
Nam June Paik’s Edison, offered at the same starting price, closed at 350 million won.
The session’s total, 5.3 billion won, marked a more than 70% jump from October last year.
For an art market that had languished for nearly two years, these results have been hailed as an early sign of a thaw.
HIGH-VALUE ARTWORKS LEAD REBOUND
After a long slump since 2022, auction results began improving from the third quarter this year.
According to Korea Art Authentication & Appraisal Inc., the combined hammer total of the country’s nine major auction houses reached 31.35 billion won in the third quarter, up 32% from a year earlier.
Driving that surge were blue-chip, high-value artworks.
Lee Jung-seop’s Cow and Child sold for 3.52 billion won at K Auction in September, setting the quarter’s record price, while Park Soo-keun’s Mountain (1959) fetched 1.2 billion won.
The trend continued into October, when the minimalist painter and sculptor Lee Ufan’s With Winds and Kim Whanki’s Untitled sold for 850 million won and 780 million won, respectively at K Auction.
Seoul Auction saw Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets series change hands at 1.9 billion won.
“The number of lots has declined, but the quality has gone up, and so have prices,” a researcher at Korea Art Authentication & Appraisal.
Collectors have become more selective as they return to the market, he said.
SIGNS OF RECOVERY
Momentum was also visible at September’s Korea International Art Fair (KIAF)–Frieze Seoul, held at COEX.
Mark Bradford’s Okay, then I apologize sold for about 6.3 billion won – the highest price ever recorded for an artwork at a fair in Korea.
International galleries such as White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac each sold Georg Baselitz works in the 2 billion won range, while local gallery Hakgojae placed Kim Whanki’s Clouds and Moon for 2 billion won.
“The art market has spent a long time consolidating at the bottom,” said a Seoul-based gallerist. “Now, we’re finally seeing signs of a cautious recovery.”
BROADER BASE OF COLLECTORS – AND BUOYANT STOCK MARKET
Part of the rebound reflects a base effect, given how sharply volumes fell last year.
Auction turnover shrank by double digits from mid-2022 through the first quarter of this year, as speculative investors retreated.
But dealers also point to a broader cultural shift.
Public interest in art has expanded through major museum retrospectives, such as the current Kim Tschang-yeul exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
In Seoul Auction and K Auction’s October sales, eight of the ten Kim Tschang-yeul pieces offered found buyers.
While speculative “flipping” of traditional dansaekhwa, or Korean monochrome, works has subsided, a new wave of collectors driven by personal taste, not just investment, is stepping in.
At K Auction, Won Gye-hong’s Rose leapt from 3 million won to 17 million won, while Kim Sun-woo’s Rendezvous smashed its upper estimate, selling for 71 million won from a 29 million won opening bid.
RISING STOCK MARKET PLAYS ITS PART
A strong equities market has also played its part.
With the benchmark Kospi stock index hovering at record highs, investors have fresh liquidity to deploy – and historically, art markets tend to follow bull runs in financial assets.
Still, caution prevails among some observers.
“The rebound is being driven by a handful of major artists,” said Jeong Joon-mo, former chief curator at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. “It’s too early to call this a broad-based recovery. Uncertainty remains high.”
For now, though, the sight of a Nam June Paik video sculpture hammering down at 350 million won – after months of quiet rooms and unsold lots – has given Seoul’s art market something it hasn’t had in some time: a sense of momentum, analysts said.
