By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Hong Ra-hee, the wife of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, appeared Wednesday at an independent counsel's office to be questioned over allegations that she bought expensive paintings with the group's slush fund.
Hong, 63, arrived at the office in Seoul around 3 p.m. as hundreds of reporters were waiting for the appearance of the wife of the nation's largest conglomerate. It is the first time that she has been called in by prosecutors.
Arriving with one of the group's lawyers, she did not answer any of the reporters' questions, but only said, ``I will faithfully respond (to the investigation).''
Hong is alleged to have used the group's slush fund to purchase high-priced paintings at overseas auctions through Korean art galleries in 2002 and 2003. The probe team confirmed earlier that some dividends of Samsung Life Insurance shares, which were registered under Samsung executives' names but actually belonged to the chairman, were used for buying paintings.
A Samsung whistleblower claimed Hong bought ``Happy Tears,'' a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, through Seomi Gallery with the group's slush funds. Both Samsung and the gallery head denied the claim.
They questioned her over whether she was aware of the false-name stock accounts and whether the money in them was used in buying art pieces.
The counsel also interrogated her about the thousands of paintings found at a warehouse in the Samsung-run theme park Everland in Gyeonggi Province. The group claimed the artworks there were collected by and inherited from Hong's late father-in-law and group founder Lee Byung-chul.
Hong, also director general of Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, began the art collection in 1995 when she became the head of Ho-Am Art Museum, which Lee Byung-chul established.
She is now a big name in art circles ― she was selected by an art magazine as the most influential figure in Korean art for two consecutive years and is currently the head of the Membership Society of the National Museum of Contemporary Art.
Majoring in applied art, Hong has shown an interest in modern art. She has held exhibitions of Korean and foreign contemporary art at Leeum, which has become the center of modern and contemporary art since its opening in 2004. It is said that her interest in Pop Art and Minimalism has brought a surge in interest in those genres in Korea.