Two Treasures from Gansong Art Museum Fail to Sell at K-Auction Auction (Update)

Auction Starts at 1.5 Billion Won... No Bidders

Treasure No. 284 Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha (left) and No. 285 Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva
[Photo by K Auction]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Two treasures from the Kansong Art Museum, put up for auction for the first time since its establishment, failed to sell at the K Auction May auction held on the 27th at the K Auction headquarters in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

At this K Auction event, Treasure No. 284, the Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha (Geumdong Yeorae Ipsang, 金銅如來立像), and Treasure No. 285, the Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva (Geumdong Bosal Ipsang, 金銅菩薩立像), both owned by the Kansong Art Museum, were offered. These two Buddhist statues attracted public attention as they marked the first time the Kansong Art Museum put its collection up for auction since its founding in 1938.

K Auction conducted the sale of these two works in a special auction format after concluding auctions of modern and contemporary art and traditional art.

The auction began with Treasure No. 284, the Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha. K Auction set the starting bid at 1.5 billion KRW with bid increments of 20 million KRW, but there were no bids either on-site or by phone. The subsequent auction for Treasure No. 285, the Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva, was offered under the same conditions?starting bid of 1.5 billion KRW and increments of 20 million KRW?but again, no bidders appeared.

Both statues date back to the Three Kingdoms period and the Unified Silla period, respectively, and are highly valued culturally for clearly illustrating the evolution of Korean Buddhist statues during those eras. Accordingly, both were designated as treasures in 1963.

However, prior to the auction, some raised suspicions that the two works might not be authentic. Ultimately, these two statues, which drew public attention as the first items from the Kansong Art Museum’s collection to be auctioned, failed to find new owners.

The reason the Kansong Art Museum put its collection up for auction is reportedly due to accumulated financial difficulties. After the passing of Jeon Seong-woo, the eldest son of Kansong and former chairman of the Kansong Cultural Foundation, in 2018, a large inheritance tax arose, and recently, the burden of costs related to the construction of a new storage facility increased significantly.

The Kansong Art Museum, established in 1938 by Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil, is Korea’s first private art museum. Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil collected national treasure-level cultural assets that were at risk of being smuggled to Japan during the Japanese colonial period using his private funds. The museum holds 12 national treasures and 32 treasures, including the Hunminjeongeum Haerye (National Treasure No. 70), the Celadon Inlaid Cloud and Crane Ewer (National Treasure No. 68), and the Hyewon Shin Yun-bok Album of Genre Paintings (National Treasure No. 135).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.