Estimated at Trillions, the Fate of the 'Lee Geon-hee Collection'... Will It Be Paid as Inheritance Tax or Donated Generously by the Samsung Family?

Over 10,000 Korean Antique and Western Modern Artworks
'Only the Best' - Chairman Lee's 40 Years of Masterpiece Collection

900 Ultra-High-Value Pieces Worth Hundreds of Billions to Trillions KRW
Alberto Giacometti's 'Large Woman III' as a Highlight
Includes 160 National Treasure-Level Cultural Assets, Including 82 Treasures

Plans to Donate to Museums or Build a Dedicated Museum
Various Compromises Including Partial Donation to Public Institutions
Samsung Family to Decide the Fate of the Artworks by End of Next Month

Late Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics (left), Picasso's 'Portrait of Dora Maar' (right)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "It is beyond any price. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Korean art development hinges on the Samsung family's decision."

A representative of a domestic gallery recently described the so-called ‘Lee Kun-hee Collection,’ the biggest topic in the art world, in this way. If the approximately 12,000 artworks left by the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Electronics, are sold on the market to cover the Samsung family’s inheritance tax, the national loss would be immeasurable. The implication is that the government should accept the artworks as payment for inheritance tax, or the Samsung family should make a generous decision to donate them. Samsung, currently in the final stages of appraising the artworks, must decide their fate by the end of next month according to inheritance tax law.

The Lee Kun-hee Collection encompasses Korean antique art, modern and contemporary Korean art, and Western modern and contemporary art. These masterpieces were collected over 40 years by Chairman Lee, who insisted on only the ‘best’ artworks. The estimated market value ranges roughly from 1 trillion to up to 3 trillion Korean won.

Among these, the ultra-high-value collection includes about 900 Western modern and contemporary artworks. Many pieces are known to be worth hundreds of billions to trillions of Korean won. A representative work is Alberto Giacometti’s (1901?1966) bronze sculpture ‘Grande Femme III.’ Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor representing 20th-century surrealism. A similar Giacometti work owned by Chairman Lee, ‘Man Pointing,’ was sold for 155 billion Korean won at a 2015 Christie’s auction in New York.

A gallery representative said, "Since the exact list of Chairman Lee’s collection has not been publicly disclosed, I am cautious, but personally I consider the Giacometti works to be the most valuable," adding, "Considering the recent art market atmosphere, they would easily fetch several hundred billion won."

‘Figure in a Room’ by British expressionist painter Francis Bacon (1909?1992) is also expected to be worth around 100 billion Korean won. Bacon’s ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud,’ painted seven years later, was sold for 152.8 billion Korean won at a 2013 Christie’s auction in New York. This was the highest price ever recorded at an art auction at the time, surpassing the previous record held by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s (1863?1944) ‘The Scream.’

‘Water Lilies’ by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840?1926) is also a top-tier work of its time. His representative work ‘Haystacks’ sold for 131.6 billion Korean won in a 2019 auction, the highest price ever for an Impressionist piece. Additionally, Chairman Lee’s collection includes works by Russian abstract expressionist pioneer Mark Rothko (1903?1970), Belgian surrealist master Ren? Magritte (1898?1967), and Spanish Cubist painter Pablo Picasso (1881?1973), making it difficult to list all due to their value and quantity.

An official from the art auction industry said, "Recently, works by abstract expressionist artists like Rothko and Jackson Pollock (1912?1956) have been selling well in the global art market," adding, "Impressionist and classical works are so rare that when good pieces come up for auction, the sky’s the limit."

The Lee Kun-hee Collection reportedly includes about 160 national treasure-level cultural assets, including 30 national treasures and 82 treasures. It also contains countless works by Korea’s leading modern and contemporary art masters such as Park Soo-keun (1914?1965), Lee Jung-seop (1916?1956), and Kim Whanki (1913?1974).

Mark Rothko 'Untitled (1956)'.

The art world unanimously agrees that the worst-case scenario would be the Samsung family putting the artworks on the market. While the best option would be for the government to quickly introduce a system allowing artworks to be paid as inheritance tax in kind, it is acknowledged that this is realistically difficult due to public opinion and other factors. A head of an art organization hinted, "It will be hard for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to break the legacy of love for culture and arts passed down since Chairman Lee Byung-chul’s era."

There are two main compromise options. One is for the Samsung family to donate the artworks to museums, or to build a new museum dedicated to the Lee Kun-hee Collection. This is a method already employed by global conglomerates in the US and Europe. American financial tycoon J.P. Morgan donated all his collected works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty built the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as a social contribution. The Museum of Modern Art in New York would have struggled to gain its reputation as the world’s top modern art museum without the continuous support of the Rockefeller family over generations.

There is also an opinion that if the late chairman’s artworks are donated to museums, it would be better to donate them to museums owned by public interest foundations rather than public institutions like the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art or the National Museum of Korea. This is to cover storage costs and to expand the diversity of the collection.

Meanwhile, a strong suggestion is emerging to donate some of the cultural assets to public institutions, while the rest would be donated to the Leeum and Ho-Am Art Museums owned by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. Kim Hee-geun, chairman of the Korea Mecenat Association, said, "Donating to a public interest foundation is equivalent to donating to society," adding, "If the public interest foundation disappears, the related collections will revert to the state, so ultimately they become public property." Regarding this, a Samsung Group official said, "Nothing has been decided yet about whether to donate the artworks," adding, "The location will be determined only after the ongoing appraisal of the works is completed."

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