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| A visitor to Frieze Seoul, an international art fair, takes a photo of a Picasso painting at COEX in southern Seoul, Sept. 2. Yonhap |
Korea's art market is expected to break the 1 trillion-won ($776.5 million) mark for the first time this year on the back of brisk sales by galleries and art fairs, according to a report released Wednesday.
The trade volume of artworks nearly tripled from 2020 to 922.3 billion won in 2021, thanks to ample liquidity and the influx of new individual buyers, and the figure is forecast to top 1 trillion won this year, the "Korea Art Market 2022" report said.
The English-language report, the first of its kind, was jointly published by Paradise Cultural Corporation and Seoul National University's Institute of Economic Research.
Galleries continued to exert a dominant influence on the Korean art market, while art fairs have increased their share of the market, with their combined revenue nearly doubling in the last two years.
In 2021, galleries accounted for 48 percent of total transactions, followed by auctions with 35 percent and art fairs with 15 percent.
The research team attributed the booming art market to a rise of young consumers, referred to as Generation Z and millenials.
"Compared to baby boomers and Gen Xers, millennials show a greater preference for artists of foreign nationalities and artists who are active outside South Korea," the report said. "Millennial collectors picked international galleries as their most preferred venue for their next art purchases."
Several international galleries and auction houses have opened offices and branches in Seoul since last year to capitalize on the latest trend.
Perrotin, Lehmann Maupin and Pace led the way, and Thaddaeus Ropac, Konig, Gladstone and Tang Contemporary followed suit by opening galleries in culture hot spots, such as Hannam-dong and Cheongdam-dong.
The report said domestic art trading reached a peak in the third quarter of 2021, forecasting a slowdown next year amid the global recession.
"An analysis of the quarterly gross amounts of winning auction bids on artworks suggests that the post-pandemic art boom in South Korea peaked in the third quarter of 2021," the report said. "With a global recession looming, it is inevitable that the Korean art market will undergo a phase of correction." (Yonhap)
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