By Ines Min
Staff reporter
A painting by renowned artist Lee Joong-sup (1916-1956) has been valued at 3.5 billion won ($3.08 million), Korea's oldest auction house announced Monday.
``Soh,'' or ``Bull,'' by Lee will be up for sale this June and has the potential to break the country's record to become the most expensive piece of art, according to Seoul Auction.
``Bull'' (1953) is one of only around 10 known remaining works by Lee, a celebrated Korean modernist painter, and was part of a 1973 collection of the artist's works at what is now Gallery Hyundai in Insa-dong, Seoul. Lee is famous for his distinctive series of paintings of bulls.
The previous record holder for the most expensive artwork was Park Soo-keun's ``A Wash Place,'' which was valued between 3 billion won and 4 billion won. The successful bid reached 4.5 billion won.
The combination of high value and rarity in both Lee's and Park's pieces have led to forgery scandals cropping up over the years, only to be proven false by panels of experts and historians.