Cho Young-nam claims not guilty for assisted painting

Cho Young-nam

Singer and painter Cho Young-nam, 71, who is on trial for fraud charges, insisted that he did not know hiring assistants was illegal, at a hearing, Monday.

The singer, who has also been active as an artist for decades, was indicted in June for selling paintings done by his assistant without notice of this fact. Cho added final touches to some 21 paintings and sold them under his name for 150 million won ($130,000) from September 2011 to January 2015.

At the second hearing, Cho said he has been painting by himself for about 30 years and he hired his former assistant Song to share the workload.

"There was no way to notify that I use an assistant. Some paintings were sold through a gallery and others sold directly. However, no one asked me whether I hired an assistant or not," Cho is quoted saying. "I did not know it was a problem, but suddenly it became an object of concern."

The judge said the issue is whether an artist is bound to inform whether he or she uses an assistant.

The court will hold another trial next month to hear from Cho again.