Rhee Seund-ja‘s work sells for over $1 million at auction

La Montagne Sans Ombre (The Mountain without Shadow)

Korean artist Rhee Seund-ja’s “La Montagne Sans Ombre” sold for HK$8.19 million ($1.05 million) at Christie‘s 20th/21st Century Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

This is the highest price ever recorded for a Korean artist, with the artwork purchased by an overseas collector bidding online. Lee Hak-jun of Christie’s Korea commented that the recent global art market trend favoring female artists, along with the 2024 Venice Biennale, likely contributed to the record sale.

Rhee’s previous record was set in March 2022 with the sale of “Vie Privée d‘une Fontaine,” which sold for 500 million won ($363,000) at K-Auction.