From Rolex to gold bars, tax-seized luxury goods go up for auction
An Hermès Kelly bag with palladium hardware, one of 99 luxury goods seized from tax delinquents that will be offered for sale at Seoul Auction, Saturday / Courtesy of Seoul Auction
Rolex watches, Hermès handbags and gold bars are among 99 lots of luxury goods seized from Korea’s major tax delinquents that will go under the hammer this weekend in a special auction organized by the National Tax Service, Seoul Auction said Tuesday.
The sale, scheduled for Saturday, carries combined opening bids of 344.7 million won ($258,000) and will be split between online and in-person bidding, with offerings ranging from fine jewelry and premium whisky to high-end bicycles.
Eighteen lots featuring sought-after brands will be available exclusively in person at Seoul Auction’s Gangnam Center. They include a Rolex Day-Date automatic watch with an opening bid of 35 million won and an Hermès Kelly 25 bag with palladium hardware starting at 12 million won. Two Chanel Coco Crush rings, in white and beige gold, each set with diamonds and made of 18-karat gold, are priced to start at 8 million won.
The online sale has a similarly eclectic lineup: Japanese whiskies, a titanium-frame folding bicycle, a Christian Dior handbag and jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels and Boucheron. Six 24-karat gold bars will be offered together, with a combined opening bid of 20 million won.
Prospective buyers can inspect the items at the auction house from Wednesday through Saturday ahead of the sale.
Josef Albers' "Homage to the Square" (1969) / Courtesy of Seoul Auction
The auction is part of a partnership between Seoul Auction and the National Tax Service that began in the second half of last year. As the tax agency’s commissioned auction operator, the company handles the sale of seized assets to help recover unpaid taxes. The two sides work together to determine the composition and format of each sale around market demand.
At their first special auction on March 11, all 76 lots were sold, bringing in 1.2 billion won — more than six times their combined opening bids of 197 million won. The Saturday sale marks the second time the seized assets have been assembled for a dedicated event featuring both online and in-person bidding.
“Many of the items in this sale have opening bids at half their retail prices or even lower, making them accessible to a wider pool of buyers,” a Seoul Auction official said. “Through broad participation and competitive bidding, we hope to realize the value of these seized assets in the open market while helping recover unpaid taxes and bolster government revenue.”
Meanwhile, six high-value works of modern and contemporary art seized by the authorities will go under the hammer separately at Seoul Auction’s regular sales on Nov. 23 and 24. Among them are Josef Albers’ 1969 painting “Homage to the Square,” with a low estimate of 350 million won, and Yoshitomo Nara’s sculpture “The Puff Marshies Mini” (2006), estimated at 100 million won at the low end.
Similar auctions of tax-seized assets take place in other countries, though the systems differ.
In the U.S., tax sales commonly involve real estate sold over unpaid property taxes. Spain’s State Tax Administration Agency regularly auctions assets seized from tax debtors, including homes, vehicles and jewelry. Japan has its own system, known as “kobai,” through which tax authorities sell everything from real estate and vehicles to luxury goods and artworks.