K-Auction Sells 10.1 Billion KRW Worth at June Auction... Lee Ufan's Work Achieves Highest Price

Lee Ufan's "From Point". (Photo by K Auction)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] K Auction announced on the 24th that it recorded a 75% success rate and a total winning bid amount of 10.0734 billion KRW in the last auction of the first half of this year.

The highest auction price was for Lee Ufan's 'From Point,' which was sold for 1.35 billion KRW. Following that, Jeong Sanghwa's 'Untitled 96-5-14,' reminiscent of the blue Masan sea, was sold for 1.1 billion KRW.

The most fiercely contested auction was Woo Gukwon's 'Satisfaction,' which started at 8 million KRW and was sold for 40 million KRW, five times the starting price. The highest-priced piece in the antique art category was Baekbeom Kim Gu's 'Pungsong·Uchoi (風送·雨催),' which found a new owner for 28.5 million KRW.

Baek Nam-soon's 'A Grain of Wheat'.

A total of five works by Jeong Sanghwa, who is currently holding a retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul, were submitted, and four were sold. Four works from Park Seo-bo's Myobeop series were submitted and all were sold after fierce competition. 'A Grain of Wheat,' a 1983 work by Baek Namsoon, Korea's first-generation female painter and also known as Lee Jungseop's mentor, was auctioned starting at 8 million KRW and sold for 38 million KRW after intense bidding.

Additionally, editions by overseas artists such as David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, and Javier Calleja sparked competition and heated up the atmosphere on site. A K Auction official stated, "We confirmed that there is strong demand for edition works by famous overseas artists among first-time art buyers and young collectors."

Participation in auctions through online live bidding, introduced after the outbreak of COVID-19, continued in this month's auction as well. Works sold through online live bidding accounted for about 11% of all auctioned pieces in this auction.

K Auction plans to continue with a planned live auction on July 7.

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