The artwork, titled “On the Way Back,” was the biggest hit at the Hong Kong sale organized by K Auction, a major South Korean auction house, a day earlier, according to the company.

The painting on canvas created in the 1950s shows a woman carrying a jar on her head. Its price had been estimated at 1.8 billion won-4 billion won.

Kim (1913-1974) had been dubbed the “Picasso of Korea.” His artwork “Untitled 6-X II-69” also sold for 120 million won at Sunday’s auction.

In a separate auction also in Hong Kong on Sunday, a painting by Park Seo-bo, a leading artist of the Korean dansaekhwa movement, fetched 1.42 billion won, an indication of global collectors’ still-strong appetite for dansaekhwa, Korean abstract paintings typically filled with minimal color and unusual textures.  

“Ecriture No. 65-75,” a painting of oil and pencil on canvas, became Park’s highest valued artwork. With its sale, Park, 80, is one of only three surviving artists in Korea who have seen a piece of their work trade at over 1 billion won. The two others are Lee U-fan and Chung Sang-hwa, also dansaekhwa artists.  

By Lee Sun-young & news reports
(milaya@heraldcorp.com)