South Korea’s artwork market in 2022 shattered data, bolstered by the launch of Frieze Seoul and the nation’s early lifting of Covid journey restrictions in comparison with the remainder of East Asia. This yr has seen a readjustment, dropping to 2019 ranges with international financial woes echoing in Korea. In the meantime different Asian artwork centres, notably Hong Kong, search to reclaim their former market positions. Sellers hope that the September artwork week surrounding Frieze Seoul and Korea Worldwide Artwork Truthful Seoul (Kiaf) will present a much-needed increase.
“Throughout the Covid period, the market was so overheated, and now that it’s again down I really feel it’s extra secure,” says Jane Yoon, managing director, South Korea at Sotheby’s. “Clients are extra cautious than they’ve been up to now two years, however it’s clear that the variety of patrons within the Korean market is bigger than earlier than. Pre-pandemic, solely a rarified few folks collected artwork, however now a major variety of individuals are fascinated about shopping for artwork. The artwork market is popularising.”
A trillion-won market
The Korea Arts Administration Service (Kams) tallied the full artwork market quantity as value 1 trillion received ($782m) in 2022, up 32.2% from 756.3bn received in 2021. The public sale market within the first half of this yr was 80bn received—down by 9.9% from 88.8bn received within the second half of 2022, and by 44.8% from 145bn received within the first half of 2022. Kams discovered that gross sales of high-end works are notably affected, in all probability because of elevated rates of interest.
“The market dimension has returned to pre-Covid occasions,” says Hyunsoon Do, the chief government of Okay Public sale, including that “the Korean artwork market is especially unstable as a result of [it] is skinny”, rising and falling sharply. “Nonetheless, you may also discover the ground shortly. Whereas the worldwide artwork market continues to say no, Korea is believed to have stopped declining and reached its backside.”
Do says South Korea has managed inflation comparatively properly, with its central financial institution benchmark rate of interest at present decrease than that of the US. “Since there aren’t any plans to extend it additional, and we anticipate it to go decrease, asset costs will go up from the second half of the yr, which is able to naturally be a optimistic for the artwork market once more. I believe that from subsequent yr, if not from the second half of the yr, the Korean artwork market might be in an upward mode once more.”
Using artwork as an funding car has seen continued enthusiasm in Korea amid the financial doldrums, with fractional artwork funding increasing its attraction. One fractionals agency, Yeolmae, between 2020 and 2022 bought 400bn in works and resold 200bn received of shares. Yoon posits that purely speculative patrons have exited with the market’s decline, although younger collectors stay as cognisant of funding as aesthetics. In keeping with Taehee Joung, a high quality artwork specialist at Seoul Public sale: “The marketplace for younger artists, whose costs have risen sharply, has been hit the toughest. The blue-chip market is changing into the baseline for sustaining the present market, and the marketplace for vintage artwork and Korean portray is rising progressively.”
Regardless of this yr’s slowed market, Frieze Seoul is unlikely to see a sophomore hunch, with Korea’s not too long ago reopened neighbours offering new exhibitors and collectors in addition to resumed competitors. Round 40% of Frieze Seoul’s greater than 120 taking part galleries are from Asia, together with newcomers like Shanghai’s Antenna Area and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis’s Galerie Quynh.
Energetic ambiance
Emma Son, the senior director of Lehmann Maupin Seoul, predicts an lively truthful ambiance: “Final yr, pandemic shutdowns affected collectors’ skill to journey internationally, particularly for these in China, however this yr, the restrictions have been lifted, so I believe many main collectors from Asia will in all probability go to Korea. However I believe we’ll simply should see whether or not that produces gross sales.”
Korea’s collector base and comparative ease of operations have prompted many worldwide blue-chip galleries to determine everlasting venues in Seoul, with White Dice the newest to launch within the metropolis this September. Though the tempo of expansions into Seoul has slowed in contrast with final yr, Son says, “Curiosity remains to be excessive”. Past opening full services, “abroad galleries will proceed to hunt illustration in Korea”.
Sotheby’s Yoon says: “One can’t ignore Artwork Basel Hong Kong, however Frieze operates on the similar degree and is constructing Korea into one other worldwide artwork platform.” Even when some gross sales siphon again to Hong Kong and different centres, Yoon says, Korean collectors are Asia’s greatest shoppers of up to date artwork and “are thought of to be essentially the most subtle within the modern artwork market amongst Asian collectors, even in auctions”.
Collectors underneath the age of fifty account for about 80% of gross sales, Yoon says. “Growing accessibility to the Korean artwork market by means of Frieze Seoul will see issues enhance within the coming yr and within the years to return.”
• Frieze Seoul, Coex, 6-9 September; Kiaf, Coex, 7-10 September
