Court Rules Nam June Paik's 'My Faust' Works Belong to Wife of Late Daewoo Chairman Kim Woo-choong

A court has ruled that the ownership of Nam June Paik's artworks, 'My Faust: Economics' and 'My Faust: Spiritual,' belongs to Jung Hee-ja, the wife of the late Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-choong.

The 34th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Chang-mo) recently ruled in favor of the plaintiff in part in a lawsuit filed by Jung against Wooyang Industrial Development (formerly Daewoo Development) for the return of personal property.

Jung filed the lawsuit last July, demanding the return of 188 artworks currently held by the Wooyang Museum of Art. She stated, "Around 1991, I exhibited and stored artworks I owned at the Gyeongju Hilton Hotel and the Wooyang Museum of Art, which were operated by Wooyang Industrial Development under my husband's control. However, the artworks were not returned during the process of transferring management rights of Wooyang Industrial Development, and the company is currently in possession of them."

The court ordered the return of three items, including the two Nam June Paik works and a piece by German artist Sigmar Polke, recognizing them as Jung's property.

Based on testimonies from a curator at the Wooyang Museum of Art, the representative of the gallery that sold the works to Jung, and a former staff member of Jung's secretariat, the court acknowledged that Jung had personally purchased and owned those three items, including the two Nam June Paik works.

The court also cited a formal letter Jung sent to Wooyang Industrial Development in 2014 as evidence for her ownership. In the letter, she wrote, "I have allowed Wooyang Industrial Development to use various artworks and props that I purchased with personal funds over several decades, while repeatedly stating that I would retrieve them whenever necessary. Please promptly return my personal artworks and props."

However, the court did not recognize Jung's ownership of the remaining 185 items she requested, stating, "There is no objective evidence to suggest that Jung purchased them."

Jung had argued that when she served as the director of the Wooyang Museum of Art, she created collection data cards for each artwork and assigned an 'M' code to the pieces she owned.

However, the museum curator who prepared the collection data cards testified in court, saying, "Even when the owner was unknown, we recorded them with the 'M' code, and if the actual owner raised an objection later, we would modify it to a different code."

Based on this, the court concluded, "The fact that an artwork is marked with an 'M' code on a collection data card is not sufficient to conclude that it belongs to Jung."

(Photo: Courtesy of Wooyang Museum of Art, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.