Seoul Auction names vice president of new IT division

Seoul Auction appointed Lee Jung-bong, CEO of Seoul Auction Blue, as vice president to Seoul Auction’s newly established IT division on Tuesday. This comes after Seoul Auction decided to reorganize its IT division in response to the rapidly...

[SEOUL AUCTION]

Seoul Auction appointed Lee Jung-bong, CEO of Seoul Auction Blue, as vice president to Seoul Auction’s newly established IT division on Tuesday.

This comes after Seoul Auction decided to reorganize its IT division in response to the rapidly changing art industry.

Lee is the second son of Lee Ho-jae, the chairman at Seoul Auction, and is in charge of its online art auction house subsidiary — Seoul Auction Blue — since 2016.

Seoul Auction Blue manages online auctions and virtual assets like nonfungible tokens (NFTs), as well as security token offerings (STOs).

By holding two simultaneous positions at Seoul Auction and Seoul Auction Blue, Lee will work to enhance accessibility to auction-related digital data on artists and artworks, automate and computerize handwritten businesses and reorganize new online businesses.

Seoul Auction Blue is also set to resume its fractional investment business on Sotwo, its online art trading platform, after sanctions were recently lifted. Fractional investment refers to buying a “fraction” of an investment property and splitting the benefits among individual shareholders.

“Lately, the influx of the MZ Generation [those in their 20s and 30s] and the introduction of new technology have contributed to the fast pace of change in the art industry,” Lee said. “We will do our best to make sure that the expertise and experience in operating the online auction business and mobile art fractional investment platform will aid in spreading to the overall industry.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]