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'Cow and Child' by famed painter Lee Jung-seop sells for $2.5M

Published: 24 Sep. 2025, 19:06

Lee Jung-seop’s 1954 painting “Cow and Child” [K-AUCTION]

“Cow and Child” (1954), a signature work by celebrated Korean painter Lee Jung-seop (1916–56), sold for 3.52 billion won ($2.52 million) at auction Wednesday, 70 years after it was first unveiled.

K-Auction announced that the piece opened bidding at 2.5 billion won during its September sale at the company’s Gangnam headquarters in southern Seoul, eventually hammering at 3.52 billion won after heated competition.

The painting had been in the possession of the late Jeong Gi-yong, former head of Won Gallery, who passed away in June. It was first shown at Lee’s solo exhibition at Midopa Gallery in 1955 and had never appeared on the market since.

Lee’s “Cow” series is widely recognized for its bold brushstrokes and powerful expression. Fewer than a dozen such works are believed to remain, most of which are already in the collections of major museums and institutions in Korea and abroad, making their appearance at auction exceedingly rare.

The current record for a Lee painting remains the 4.7 billion won sale of “Bull” (1955) at a Seoul Auction event in 2018. While the latest result falls short of that mark, the re-emergence of one of the artist’s representative works after decades drew significant attention in the art world.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY BAE JAE-SUNG [[email protected]]