Both Treasure Buddha Statues at Gansong Art Museum Fail to Sell (Comprehensive)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Two treasure Buddha statues put up for auction by the descendants of Kansong Jeon Hyeong-pil both failed to sell.

At the auction held on the 27th at the K Auction headquarters in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Treasure No. 284 Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha and Treasure No. 285 Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva were each listed with a starting price of 1.5 billion KRW, but there were no bidders.

The two Buddha statues collected by Kansong, who protected cultural heritage by using his private funds during the Japanese colonial period, were previously designated as treasures in 1963.

The statues, owned by Kansong's descendants, had been managed by the Kansong Museum of Art, but were decided to be sold due to financial difficulties. This is the first time that nationally designated cultural properties owned by the Kansong Museum of Art have been publicly auctioned.

Treasure No. 284 Gilt-Bronze Standing Buddha is a statue from the Unified Silla period, approximately 38 cm tall. It is unusually large for a Korean gilt-bronze Buddha statue from a similar period, featuring a prominent ushnisha (the cranial bump representing Buddha's wisdom) with clearly defined hair curls.

Treasure No. 285 Gilt-Bronze Standing Bodhisattva is about 19 cm tall and was excavated in Geochang, a region of Silla. The outward-spreading folds of the robe, bead decorations, and the figure holding a bead with both hands exhibit characteristics of Buddha statues from the late 6th or early 7th century.

Before this auction, there were calls for national institutions such as the National Museum of Korea to purchase the treasures.

Although it would be burdensome for the National Museum of Korea, which has an annual cultural property acquisition budget of 4 billion KRW, to participate directly in the auction, methods such as purchase and donation by private support groups like the National Museum of Korea Association were discussed.

The National Museum of Korea expressed interest in purchasing and attempted to negotiate individual transactions after halting the auction, but the seller insisted that "private participants should be respected since the items are on the market," so the auction proceeded as scheduled.