After accusing the country’s biggest auction houses of allegedly poaching business and encroaching on the primary market, the Galleries Association of Korea recently turned the tables, touting the results of an auction it organized on January 26.
Roughly 90 member galleries participated in the auction, which was held at the Westin Josun Seoul Grand Ballroom and featured more than 100 artists and 117 works.
Although the actual sale was limited to member galleries—including who could attend and bid on works—the association said the three-day preview that ran January 24-26 was open to the public.
The association’s claims of a spike in auctions in Korea are supported by data from the Artnet Price Database.
Following its sale, the galleries association has “started negotiations with two major auction companies,” said the group’s president, Hwang Dalseung.
Some Seoul-based art professionals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Artnet News that the spat between galleries and auction houses is a reflection of an overheated market in South Korea.
Some artists who couldn’t get the kind of support they needed from galleries saw collaborating with auction houses as a career boost, without realizing that it could be damaging to their market in the long-run.