Average price of art imports surges

The average price of expensive foreign art has risen almost sixfold from the previous year.

A total of 33,037 pieces worth a total $113 million were purchased here from abroad from January to August, the Korea Customs Service said Wednesday. The average price is about $3,444, a rise of about 480 percent from last year’s average price of $596.

“After the financial crisis, the demand for low price artworks rose, but now the demand for expensive artworks by famous foreign artists has started to rise again,” said an official of the customs office.

As more people started buying artworks for investment purposes, the demand for famous, expensive artworks has risen since 2000. The year 2007 saw a record level of art imports, with total imports worth $761 million.

But after the 2008 financial crisis, the demand for high-priced art started to shrink with the total amount of art imports falling from $713 million in 2008 to $172 million in 2010.

The KCS categorizes artwork as paintings, prints and sculptures, but the official said it’s hard to know which type of artworks were the most popular pieces since they are counted under one code number.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)