2023 Korean Art Auction Market to Post Lowest Sales Numbers in Five Years

The Korean art auction market plunged in 2023. The two-year boom seems to have frozen sharply, with the art market surpassing USD 780 million last year. However, as the number of visitors to art museums has increased, the base of Korean art has expanded, and Korean art is gaining popularity due to overseas interest in K-culture, sparking a rebound depending on future economic conditions.

According to the 2023 Year-End Settlement of the Domestic Art Auction Market report released by the Korea Art Price Appraisal Association (KAPAA), sales for the domestic art auction market this year totaled about $119 million. This figure is low compared to the past five years. The market sold about $182 million in 2022, about $254 million in 2021, about $89 million in 2020, and about $120 million in 2019. This trend shows that the art market is currently suffering from a cold wave due to the economic downturn and interest rate hikes.

The 2023 Korean art auction market report surveyed online and offline auctions held from January to late December by eight auction houses in Korea (K Auction, Seoul Auction, My Art Auction, Art Day Auction, I Auction, Rise Art, A-Auction, and Kan Auction), and some were excluded from the survey due to schedules.

According to the tally, the total number of auction lot entries this year was 27,814 with 14,238 lots sold, a 51.2 percent successful bid rate. This rate has averaged more than 60 percent over the past five years, but it was the lowest this year, and the number of successful works is also lower.

By auction house, K Auction (about $44.9 million) sold the most. Seoul Auction (about $41.9 million), which had been in the top spot for the past two years, fell behind to second place but surpassed K Auction (40 percent) in average successful bid rate with 56.9 percent. K Auction submitted about 9,800 items and sold about 3,900 items, showing a big difference from the market average (51 percent). The combined total successful bid of the top two companies was 73 percent of the total, down from the previous year when they accounted for 80 to 90 percent of the total. This year’s most expensive lot, a Blue-and-White Porcelain Ojoryongmunho jar, sold with My Art Auction for $5.41 million. My Art Auction is an auction house specializing in ancient art. 

In terms of the winning bid per artist, Lee Ufan topped the list with about $10.4 million. Yayoi Kusama, who had topped the list for three consecutive years since 2020, was pushed back to third place this year (about $4.87 million). Park Seo-bo, who passed away this year, sold about $8.57 million and ranked second. From the fourth to the sixth, Kim Whan-ki (about $4.87 million), Yoo Young-kuk (about $3.32 million), and Lee Bae (about $3.01 million) also performed well.

“As a result of this year’s art market being directly affected by the overall economic slowdown, the outlook for the art market’s economic recovery by next year is not bright,” Kim Young-seok, chairman of the KAPAA Appraisal Committee, said. “It is urgent to check the overall measures to resolve the shadow of the recession and cooperate with each member of the art world.”