Gallery Seomi director Hong Song-won withdrew the 5 billion won ($4 million) legal suit she filed against Hong Ra-hee, director of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art and wife of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee.

The Seomi director had accused Hong Ra-hee and the Samsung Foundation of Culture in June of only paying 25 billion won out of an outstanding bill of 78.1 billion won for 14 works of art purchased between August 2009 and February 2010. The Seomi director was detained under investigation in May, accused of creating a slush fund for the Orion Group, and was given a four-year suspended jail sentence last month.

The list of art work sales submitted by Seomi’s director to the court included U.S. artist Willem de Kooning’s 1975 work “Untitled VI” (31.3 billion won), Anglo-Irish artist Francis Bacon’s 1956 work “Man Carrying a Child” (21.6 billion won) and British artist Damien Hirst’s contemporary work “Bull’s Head” (6.45 billion won).

The legal battle had grown fierce as Hong of Leeum claimed that “Man Carrying a Child” belonged to her as she had exchanged another work for it, bought the “Bull’s Head” from another gallery, and had completed the rest of the payment.

Dropping the suit, Hong Song-won’s lawyer said that misunderstandings were sorted out during the legal proceedings and no deals were made for the withdrawal of the suit. It is now up to Hong Ra-hee to agree to the matter and make the withdrawal complete.

“We heard that they withdrew the suit and our attorneys are considering the case. There were no prior discussions or agreements about this matter (with Seomi Gallery),” said Park Min-sun, PR official at Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.

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