Park Soo-keun Painting Worth Fortune or Fake?
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The authenticity of a painting, sold at an auction for the highest price ever in the country, has been called into question. The painting faces a reappraisal.
The painting, titled ``A Wash Place,'' by the late Park Soo-keun was sold for 4.52 billion won to a domestic collector in May, 2006. An art magazine Artrade first raised the question of authenticity of the oil work by the nation's famous painter.
The magazine claimed that the work is different from the original recorded in Park's Collection published in 1995.
In the comparison, the magazine argued that the auctioned painting featuring women washing clothes in a lake, has different color tones and depths to those of the painting printed in its edition.
But the Seoul Auction strongly denounced the allegation, citing that it was from an American collector who received the work directly from the late artist and kept it for about 50 years.
The auction also argued that the painting was properly examined by the artist's remaining family members as well as art experts before it was sold to a Korean artwork collector last May. It added that it will take legal steps if necessary as well as have the work appraised by other art experts again.
But regarding the move, the magazine demanded an organization of academic figures be formed to examine the work rather than a group of gallery representatives.
The dispute came as a huge shock as it followed the largest painting forgery scandal, in which the prosecution had previously found a number of forged paintings of the artist in the house of a collector.
Prosecutors had seized some 2,800 forged paintings of nationally acclaimed painters ― including Park and Lee Joong-seop, five of which were sold at an art auction for 919 million won. It took almost three years for the investigation to prove they were all forged.