Seoul Auction Records Annual Total Sales of 71.4 Billion Won Last Year... "Increasing Market Dominance"

Seoul Auction announced on the 15th that its total annual auction sales last year reached 71.4 billion KRW, marking a 30.8% increase compared to 2023. The main factors behind the rise in total auction sales last year were the expansion of auction categories and the strengthening of the art auction value chain. Seoul Auction plans to continue expanding its dominance in the domestic market going forward.

Seoul Auction successfully grew its total auction sales by diversifying auction categories beyond artworks to include real estate pre-sale rights and luxury goods. In June last year, it became the first domestic art auction house to offer the real estate pre-sale right for "The Palace 73," which was sold for 21.9 billion KRW. Since October last year, Seoul Auction has also been conducting luxury goods auctions, linked with its offline auction, through the newly launched customized luxury service "The Concierge," which debuted in July.

Seoul Auction resumed the Zero Base auction, which it had been conducting in cooperation with local cultural foundations since 2019, starting again in October last year. Both the October and November auctions achieved a 100% success rate. Zero Base is held to promote works by local artists and helps secure emerging artists and their works.

The diversification of business based on the auction business has also been gaining momentum since last year. In addition to art auctions, Seoul Auction operates businesses such as art-backed loans, center rentals, and storage facilities. The art-backed loan segment has been steadily growing since 2021, and rental revenue from the Gangnam Center increased more than sixfold in just one year.

A Seoul Auction representative stated, “We are implementing various strategies such as securing additional auction categories, strengthening the value chain, and accelerating new businesses to minimize external environmental impacts and maximize market competitiveness. Based on our capabilities as the leading art auction company in Korea, we succeeded in growing total auction sales even last year, which was regarded as the lowest activation market in history.”

He added, “Going forward, we will continue to expand auction categories based on a stable business foundation to maximize our dominance in both domestic and international auction markets. Since the average price per auctioned work has recently started to rise, the art auction market is expected to have bottomed out last year and begin a rebound this year. We will expand our market share and actively pursue overseas markets based on differentiated competitiveness.”