The first-ever online auction held by Herald artday, a subsidiary of Herald Media group, closed on Wednesday with 84 percent of items sold, the highest-ever in the history of online art auction in South Korea.

“Herald artday First Online Auction” which took place for six days topped the K Auction’s April record of 82 percent sales. The total amount in sales was over 427 million won, also exceptional for an online auction. 

Among the articles, Lee U-fan’s 1976 piece “From Line,” which was showcased to the public for the first time through the auction, was sold at the highest price of 180 million won, which is the highest amount ever reached in an online auction so far.

Competition was tough during the six-day event in which a total of 100 works by well-known local and international artists including Lee U-fan, Park Soo-keun, Kim Whan-ki, Chun Kyung-ja, Kim Chong-hak, Oh Chi-gyun and Yayoi Kusama were auctioned. Among the other works, the most coveted were Lee U-fan’s copperplate print “With Wind” and Oh Syng-yoon’s painting “Ballon Flower.”

Organizers pointed out the diversity of the auctioned works as the key to the success. The starting price of the articles ranged from 100,000 won to 100 million won, appealing to both first-timers as well as art aficionados.

Herald artday is considered to have set a new example of high-quality online auction as it introduced major works by established artists while most such auctions so far have mostly offered limited items by little-known or up-and-coming artists or only small works by a few established ones.

“We aimed to offer works that can satisfy both artistic and investment values. Credibility and fairness were also values the company kept in mind so that it could help put a brake to the prejudices and problems that are prevalent in art dealing,” said So Don-young, an official at artday.

The articles were showcased at Lotte Gallery on the 14th floor of Lotte Department Store in Sogong-dong, central Seoul, during the auction period.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)