The September 2026 auctions at Seoul Auction and K Auction brought together Korean modern and contemporary art, traditional art, and historical material. Seoul Auction organized a dedicated section for cultural heritage returned from overseas, while K Auction highlighted an album of illustrations and drawings by Korean modern and contemporary artists. The results provide a basis for examining the scale of trading alongside the characteristics of individual works and the conditions under which their prices were established.
 
 
 
Seoul Auction: Returned Cultural Heritage and the Pricing of Individual Works
 
Seoul Auction held its 195th art auction at its Gangnam Center at 4 p.m. on September 22. The preview ran from September 11 through the auction date. Advance publicity announced 101 lots with aggregate low estimates of KRW 8,500,000,000 (approximately US$6,333,200). According to thebell, the total hammer value was KRW 5,509,500,000 (approximately US$4,105,000). After six withdrawals, 59 of the 95 lots offered sold, giving a sell-through rate of 62.1%.
 
A distinctive feature of the sale was its “Return: Repatriated Cultural Heritage” section. It included Kim Hong-do’s Baekse Noduta (A Hundred-Year-Old Ascetic Monk), Oh Il-young’s A Carriage Stopped in an Autumn Maple Grove, Yi Ha-eung’s Orchids and Strange Rocks, and Min Yeong-ik’s Ink Orchids. Their return to Korea and ownership histories were central to the catalogue descriptions.

Kim Hong-do’s Baekse Noduta carried an estimate of KRW 30,000,000–60,000,000 (approximately US$22,400–44,700) and sold for KRW 180,000,000 (approximately US$134,100). Executed in ink on paper and measuring 35.4 x 39.1 cm, it depicts an elderly monk with his palms joined and a young attendant beside him. The hammer price was three times the high estimate.
 
Baekse Noduta is a Buddhist painting intended for viewing, featuring an elderly monk and a young attendant. SmartK compared it with Kim’s Elderly Monk Chanting, in the Kansong collection, noting the shared subject of a monk with joined palms accompanied by a young attendant. The pre-sale description also identified it as a presumed former possession of Sone Arasuke, who served as resident-general in Korea during the final years of the Korean Empire.
 
The result, substantially above the estimate, indicates bidding demand for this particular work. Publicly available results do not, however, allow the effects of rarity, provenance, expression, and condition to be isolated or quantified. The transaction is best read as a price established for an individual painting, rather than as evidence of a broader price shift across Kim Hong-do’s work or the traditional art market.

Pre-sale publicity highlighted Park Soo Keun’s Street, Park Seo-Bo’s Ecriture No. 050319, and Lee Ufan’s Dialogue. Park’s Street (1960), depicting a woman carrying a wooden basin on her head and children, opened at KRW 500,000,000 (approximately US$372,500) and sold for KRW 530,000,000 (approximately US$394,900). Park Seo-Bo’s red Ecriture No. 050319 (2005), approximately size 200 on the Korean canvas scale, was estimated at KRW 600,000,000–800,000,000 (approximately US$447,100–596,100) and sold for KRW 620,000,000 (approximately US$462,000).
 
The offerings placed leading figures in Korean modern and contemporary art alongside traditional works with historical context. For the modern and contemporary works, signature series, dates, and scale were prominent elements of the descriptions. For the returned cultural heritage, rarity and provenance received greater emphasis.
 
The total hammer value needs to be considered alongside the number of lots sold. Thebell reported that Seoul Auction sold fewer works in September than in the previous month, while transactions for works priced in the hundreds of millions of won raised the total. This indicates the influence of the price distribution of the sold lots. Results by price bracket and artist are needed before drawing conclusions about whether trading broadened.
 
 
 
K Auction: Sales of Signature Series and an Illustration Album
 
K Auction held its regular sale at its Sinsa-dong headquarters in Seoul at 4 p.m. on September 30. Advance publicity announced 117 lots worth approximately KRW 11,000,000,000 (approximately US$8,195,900). The showroom preview ran from September 19 to 30, including the Chuseok holiday. According to thebell, total hammer value was KRW 3,506,300,000 (approximately US$2,612,500). After nine withdrawals, 57 of the 108 lots offered sold, producing a sell-through rate of 52.8%.
 
Notable sales by Korean artists included works by Lee Ufan, Ha Chong-Hyun, and Chang Ree-suok. K Auction’s official results announcement identified Lee’s From Point as the highest-priced lot, selling for KRW 360,000,000 (approximately US$268,200). Ha’s Conjunction 21-92 sold for KRW 320,000,000 (approximately US$238,400). According to thebell, Chang’s Before the Gate (1972) opened at KRW 4,600,000 (approximately US$3,400) and sold for KRW 8,500,000 (approximately US$6,300).

From Point is one of Lee Ufan’s signature series, in which repeated dots, changes in the paint, and the duration of the painting gesture structure the surface. The result records the price achieved by one work in the series. Comparisons between individual works require attention to date, dimensions, composition, condition, and provenance. A shared series title alone provides insufficient grounds for a direct price comparison.
 
Together with Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 21-92, the two works generated KRW 680,000,000 (approximately US$506,700). This represents approximately 19.4% of the reported total hammer value of KRW 3,506,300,000 (approximately US$2,612,500). The figure indicates their share of the sale’s monetary total; assessing concentration by artist across the auction would require data on the other sold lots.
 
Chang Ree-suok’s Before the Gate sold within its estimate of KRW 5,000,000–20,000,000 (approximately US$3,700–14,900). Considering both the increase over its opening bid and its position within the estimate helps distinguish bidding demand from the price level achieved.
 
Another notable offering was the album catalogued as 207 Newspaper Illustrations. It brings together work by 61 artists, including Park Soo Keun, Chang Ucchin, Kim Ki-chang, Park Re-hyun, Park Seo-Bo, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Lee Ungno, and Chun Kyung-ja. Estimated at KRW 260,000,000–400,000,000 (approximately US$193,700–298,000), it sold for KRW 300,000,000 (approximately US$223,500) after several rounds of bidding, according to K Auction. The hammer price fell within the pre-sale estimate.

The album’s composition warrants a closer description. According to the pre-sale information, the 207 items include five New Year greeting cards, and newspaper publication has been verified for 120 works. It is therefore more accurate to describe it as a collection of newspaper illustrations and related drawings than to imply that all 207 items have confirmed publication histories.
 
The material’s value lies both in individual works and in the relationships between them. Comparing production dates and newspaper pages could illuminate artists’ activities in the 1950s, their relationship with the press, and formal developments that continued in their later work. Realizing this research potential requires an inventory, verification of sources, and documentation of the originals’ condition.
 
K Auction’s advance publicity also connected works by Lee Dai Won and Do Ho Suh with exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Lee’s Farm (Pear Blossoms) and Suh’s Floor Module opened at KRW 190,000,000 (approximately US$141,600) and KRW 340,000,000 (approximately US$253,300), respectively, but were unsold. An artist’s visibility through museum exhibitions should be considered separately from bidding demand for an individual auction lot. A detailed account of the results also requires attention to the work’s type, scale, price, and conditions of ownership and installation.

K Auction’s total hammer value declined by approximately 0.7%, from KRW 3,532,000,000 (approximately US$2,631,600) in August to KRW 3,506,300,000 (approximately US$2,612,500) in September. The sell-through rate fell by 10.1 percentage points, from 62.9% to 52.8%. Excluding withdrawals, the number of lots offered rose from 97 to 108, while the number sold fell from 61 to 57. The monetary total remained similar, but both the number and proportion of sold lots decreased.
 
The two September sales combined transactions in signature series with returned cultural heritage and historical material bringing together the work of multiple artists. Date, type, rarity, provenance, and documentation informed the pre-sale descriptions in different ways. Analysis of these auctions rests on connecting that information with the actual results. Hammer prices record the terms of transactions at a particular moment, while the works’ art-historical and documentary value can be developed further through research and comparison.
 
 

Sources

Seoul Auction pre-sale information and artwork details | Newsis, September 10, 2026
Seoul Auction September results | thebell, September 23, 2026
K Auction September results | thebell, October 1, 2026
K Auction August results | thebell, August 27, 2026
K Auction offerings and album composition | Newsis, September 18, 2026
K Auction official results | September auction results post on the official website
Kim Hong-do artwork details and comparison | SmartK, October 1, 2026
 
 
Currency note: US dollar equivalents are approximate, rounded to the nearest US$100, and calculated consistently at US$1 = KRW 1,342.13, the October 5, 2026 closing rate reported by Investing.com. They are provided for reference and do not represent exchange rates applied to the auction transactions. Korean-language artwork titles are translated descriptively where an official English title has not been verified.

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