Art Dealer and Former Gallery Executive Indicted for Falsifying Provenance of Lee Ufan Painting (D-Report)

A single blue dot, growing darker from left to right, is placed against a wide expanse of empty space.

This is "Dialogue," a representative work by artist Lee Ufan.

Prosecutors have recently indicted two individuals—the CEO of an art sales company, identified as A, and a former sales director of a prominent domestic gallery, identified as B—on charges of selling a painting by falsely claiming it was part of Lee Ufan's "Dialogue" series and pocketing approximately 1.1 billion won.

According to the indictment obtained by SBS, in October 2023, the suspects sold the painting to C, the CEO of an art exhibition company, claiming it was Lee Ufan's "Dialogue Blue." They justified the painting's history by stating, "It was acquired from a lawyer who purchased it directly from artist Lee Ufan."

However, investigations by the prosecution revealed that the purchase route and ownership history provided by the suspects could not be verified.

The case began in January of last year when C filed a criminal complaint with the police, alleging that he had been defrauded by the group.

Initially, the police decided not to forward the case to the prosecution, citing insufficient evidence. They had concluded that the suspects did not deceive C, basing their decision on documents such as an "authenticity certificate" from the Korea Art Appraisal Center.

However, C challenged the police's decision and filed an objection with the prosecution. Despite receiving a request for supplementary investigation from the prosecution, the police maintained their original conclusion and recommended non-indictment again.

Upon taking over the case, the prosecution focused on C's statement that "the ownership history was more critical to the decision to purchase the painting than the authenticity certificate."

In other words, the provenance—the "family tree" of the painting, detailing who bought and sold it—was accepted as the more significant piece of evidence.

Following further investigations, including questioning A and B, the prosecution concluded that the suspects had indeed deceived C regarding the provenance to gain unfair profits.

Among cases where police initially decided not to forward charges, 53,406 cases were sent to the prosecution following objections from involved parties, more than double the number from the first year of the investigative power adjustment.

During the same period, the number of cases where police conclusions were overturned through direct supplementary investigations by the prosecution or requests for further investigation has also more than doubled compared to four years ago.

Reported by Shin Yong-il | Video by Shin Se-eun | Graphics by Seo Seung-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.