Kim Whanki's ‘Blue Dot Painting’ sold for 7.8 billion won

A blue abstract dot painting by Korean artist Kim Whanki was sold for over 7.8 billion won at an auction in Hong Kong. This marks the third-highest price ever achieved for a Korean artwork in a public auction.

At the "20th and 21st Century Evening Sale" held on Thursday on the 7th floor of The Henderson Building, where Christie's Hong Kong headquarters is located, Kim Whanki's 1971 painting "9-XII-71 #216" was sold for 46 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 7.82 billion won, excluding fees). Including fees, the final price was 56,035,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately 9.56 billion KRW).

The auction was conducted by auctioneer Adrian Meyer, who previously sold Paul Cézanne's "Mont Sainte-Victoire" for $138 million (approximately 183.6 billion won) at Christie's New York in 2022. Kim Whanki's artwork found a buyer after six rounds of bidding, but the overall atmosphere of the auction was relatively calm. The sold piece was estimated to fetch between 77.5 billion and 112 billion won (45 to 65 million Hong Kong dollars) and sold at the lower end of that estimate.

Lee Hak-jun, the representative of Christie's Korea, said, "It features bright blue tones, and you can see the production process where Kim Whanki painted the base color, drew lines over it, and then applied dots, making it an attractive work." As a result of this auction, all top 10 spots in the historical auction price rankings for Korean paintings are now occupied by works by Kim Whanki. The highest price ever recorded and the second-highest piece are "Universe" (05-IV-71 #200), which sold for approximately 12.3 billion won at Christie's Hong Kong in November 2019, and "3-II-72 #220," which sold for around 8.53 billion won at the Seoul Auction Hong Kong auction in May 2018.


Min Kim kimmin@donga.com