Painting sold at record W5.4 bil.

Kim Whan-ki’s “Untitled 27-VII-72 #228” is sold at at K Auction in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Yun Suh-young

A painting by renowned Korean abstract artist Kim Whan-ki (1913-1974) was sold at the highest price in the history of Korean artwork at the K Auction in Seoul, Tuesday.

The late artist's "Untitled 27-VII-72 #228" (208 cm x 264 cm) painted in 1972 was sold for 5.4 billion won ($4.65 million), breaking his previous record of 4.86 billion won set in April at the Seoul Auction held in Hong Kong.

Kim holds the record for topping the auction chart with four works sold at the highest prices in domestic and overseas auctions. All four are large-sized abstract works painted in dots. Kim is known to have 30 large-sized pieces.

Industry insiders had expected the painting sold Tuesday to set a new record due to its particularly large size, anticipating it to be sold for between 4.5 billion and 6 billion won. The sold piece has a unique characteristic of dot patterns flowing diagonally unlike his previous paintings.

Other expensive works by the late dansaekhwa (monochrome) pioneer include "9-Ⅶ-71 #209" from 1971 sold at 4.72 billion won, and "Untitled 3-V-71 #203" from 1971 for 4.56 billion won.

/Yonhap