Korean Art Poetry Appraisal Association Auction Market Summary
Top Total Bid Amount: Kim Hwan-ki, Sold for 6 Billion Won
Amid the ongoing slump in the art market, the transaction volume of the domestic art auction market in the first half of this year showed a slight increase compared to the same period last year. However, the very low hammer rate reflected the frozen market sentiment.
According to the "2024 First Half Domestic Art Auction Market Report" released by the Korea Art Market Appraisal Association on the 27th, the total transaction amount of eight domestic art auction companies, including Seoul Auction and K Auction, from January to June this year was 91.7 billion KRW, a 13% increase from 81.1 billion KRW last year.
This is about 63% compared to 113.8 billion KRW in the first half of 2021, when the art market was booming, and 144.6 billion KRW in 2022. It was the lowest in three years since the first half of 2020 (49 billion KRW).
The auction hammer rate also recorded 49.8%, falling below 50% for the first time since 2019. The total number of auctioned works in the first half of this year was 11,045, down by 3,806 from the previous year, and among them, only 5,509 works were sold. From 2019 to 2022, the hammer rate in the first half of the year maintained the mid-to-high 60% range, between 65% and 65.3%. Then it dropped to 52.1% last year and fell below 50% for the first time this year.
The artist with the highest total hammer price was Kim Whanki. In the first half of the year, Kim Whanki recorded a total hammer price of about 6 billion KRW in art auctions, reclaiming the top spot since 2019. Including '3-V-71#203,' which was sold for 5 billion KRW at the Seoul Auction in March, the highest hammer price of the first half, the total reached 6 billion KRW, but this showed a decrease of about 8.5 billion KRW compared to 14.5 billion KRW in the first half of 2019. Additionally, the hammer rate was in the 60% range, indicating that even blue-chip artists leading the domestic art market could not escape the downturn.
Following Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan (3 billion KRW, 58%), Yun Hyong-keun (2.9 billion KRW, 88.8%), and Park Seo-bo (2.5 billion KRW, 70.4%) ranked second to fourth in hammer prices, which is also notable. While overseas famous artists such as Kusama Yayoi and Marc Chagall had been strong for a while, it is encouraging that Korean modern and contemporary works, led by Kim Whanki, dominated the top ranks this year.
By auction house, Seoul Auction recorded a total hammer price of about 53.6 billion KRW, and K Auction about 24.8 billion KRW. Seoul Auction's total hammer price included 21.9 billion KRW from the sale of officetel pre-sale rights traded on the 25th.
Kim Young-seok, director of the Korea Art Market Appraisal Association, analyzed, "Amid forecasts that the slump will continue for the time being following last year, various attempts are being made to pioneer new avenues in the art auction market, such as Seoul Auction's first officetel auction. The subdued auction market atmosphere is expected to convey a sense of crisis to galleries, artists, and market participants, and at a time when the role of cultural content is more important than ever, it is necessary to consider practical measures to revitalize the market."
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