Korea's Q3 art auction sales fall 11% as top-end deals dry up

Market stuck in 'prolonged stagnation,' report says

South Korea's art auction market lost more ground in the third quarter as sales fell despite a larger number of works on offer, according to a report released Thursday by the Seoul-based Korea Art Authentication and Appraisal Research Center.

Combined sales at the country's seven major auction houses totaled 27.97 billion won ($21.1 million) from July through September. That was down 10.8 percent from 31.36 billion won a year earlier, according to the report.

More works went up for sale but fewer of them found buyers, with offerings up 7.8 percent to 4,631 and the number sold down 1.4 percent to 2,336.

A shortage of top-end deals stood out as the main drag. The quarter's top lot, Yayoi Kusama's "Pumpkin," sold for 780 million won ($587,000) at Seoul Auction. That was less than a quarter of the 3.52 billion won paid for Lee Jung-seop's "Bull and Child," the biggest sale during the same period last year.

The 10 highest-priced works fetched 5.35 billion won in total, down from 9.3 billion won a year before. Their share of total sales fell to 19.1 percent from 29.7 percent.

"A handful of expensive lots drove first-half gains, but nothing comparable came up in the third quarter," the report said, describing the market as mired in "prolonged stagnation."

The market has yet to attract new buyers or lift mid-priced sales needed for recovery, the report added.

Sales in Hong Kong, Asia’s largest art auction hub, moved the other way. Four major evening sales in September by Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips raised about $163.5 million, up 40.4 percent from a year earlier. Nearly 95 percent of lots were sold, as opposed to about half in Korea.