[Opinion] Park Su-geun and Lee Jung-seop

When we stress the power of cultural industry, the case of painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) is frequently mentioned. The cost spent in producing one piece when he was alive is estimated about 100 dollars. However, his “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” was sold for 82.5 million dollars in 1990 at an auction. This is a multiplier of 825,000 with apologies to the artist for evaluating his great piece in money terms.

The painting known as “Ppalraeteo” (Clothes-washing place) produced by Park Su-geun was sold for 4.5 billion won last May. It had been possessed by an elderly American for 50 years. This person who bought the piece for a couple of hundreds dollars gained a great fortune that he will enjoy for the rest of his life. In fact, such “windfall gains” in the rapidly growing fine arts market are greatly stirring collectors.

However, as the prices of works increase, counterfeits are proliferating like mushrooms. This is because counterfeiters can easily gain illegal money by simply deceiving the eye of clients.

It is certain that the most well known painters in Korea are Park Su-geun and Lee Jung-seop. Park’s paintings make us feel nostalgia for the poor days in 1950s and 60s, and Lee’s works represents the live soul of artists. Park produced 300 paintings and Lee produced 500 paintings until they died. Because of the small amount of pieces they left, their prices have skyrocketed and people have to spend at least one billion won to acquire one. This high price stimulates the production of counterfeits, and, therefore, the first thing people do who want to buy is check the authenticity of the paintings they are considering.

A few days ago, 2,800 works that were allegedly produced by Lee and Park were released. This provoked a debate over the genuineness of these works, and the prosecution is investigating this. The first inspection concluded that all of them were counterfeit. In some of the paintings, fur colors, which were not available when the artists were alive, have been found. Besides, it is very doubtful that they were able to produce as many as 2,800 works during days when even colors and canvasses were barely accessible. This happening is a disgraceful event and we should be sorry on behalf of the two great painters who produced great pieces despite their poor surroundings. The fine arts circle should show its stern will to eradicate this practice. Otherwise, the entire arts circle may collapse.

Hong Chan-sik, Editorial Writer, chansik@donga.com