2023-12-19 15:12:57
Ahn Jung-geun, ‘YonghojiWoongsegijainmyojitae’ (1910). 34×135cm. /Seoul Auction
In March 1910, an ink painting written by Ahn Jung-geun (1879-1910) in Lushun Prison in China was sold at a domestic auction for 1.95 billion won. This is the highest price recorded by Dr. Ahn.
At the 176th art auction held at Seoul Auction’s Gangnam Center on the afternoon of the 19th, the ink painting ‘Yonghojiwoongse Gijakinmyojitae’ written by Dr. Ahn significantly exceeded its estimated price of 500 million to 1 billion won. It found a new owner at a high price. Previously, the most expensive ink painting by Dr. Ahn was the ink book ‘Seungpi Baekunjiwoojehyangui (乘彼白雲至于帝鄕矣)’, which was sold at an auction for 750 million won in 2018.
Dr. Ahn is known to have written a lot in prison from February 14, 1910, when he was sentenced to death, until his death on March 26. There is a record that after Dr. Ahn’s death was confirmed, Japanese officials and guards scrambled to request large letters.
This ink painting, owned by a private collector in Japan, attracted attention because it was a work that was completely unknown in domestic academia. The text reads, “How can the majestic appearance of a dragon and a tiger be compared to that of an earthworm and a cat?” and the sentence “Written by Korean national Ahn Jung-geun in Lushun Prison in the third month of the year of Gyeongsul” is clearly stamped with his handprint. It is not known who first acquired it and for what reason, but after a domestic private collector won the bid, it returned to its homeland for the first time in 113 years.
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