Cultural Insight

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In today's cultural news, we bring you the story of the nation's biggest art auction to date that recently opened up. Take a look.

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The biggest art auction to date this year has opened. Auction house K Auction opened its first art auction of 2019 last Wednesday, the 23rd, and presented some 160 works of art. The auction house reported that 78% of the pieces were sold and the total combined winning bids amounted to 6.3 billion won. The highest winning bid was for Kim Whani's pink dot painting. It was sold at 1.7 billion won, the same as the starting price. This abstract painting was shown for the first time since the artist's retrospective exhibition in 1984. At the time, its price was estimated to be as high as three billion won, but it failed to meet the expectation at the latest auction. To the disappointment of the art world, Park Soo-keun's "Children Jumping Rope," another big-ticket potential, also failed to get more than its starting bid and was sold at 310 million won. Meanwhile, Yoo Young-kuk's abstract piece titled "Work" was sold at 215 million won after the bidding started at 170 million. He is considered one of the pioneers of Korea's abstract art. Idol boy group Wanna One bid a farewell to fans in its last concerts. The group held the concert "Therefore" at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul from Thursday to Sunday. The concert drew roughly 80,000 fans in total, as it was the last official activity Wanna One did in whole. Wanna One was formed in 2017 through the survival audition program "Produce 101." Although its contract expired on December 31st, it put an official end to group activities with the concerts. Proving the group's explosive popularity, the sale of illegal concert tickets surged online. Ticket prices snowballed even to ten million won, sparking controversy. Following the last concert, Wanna One member Kang Daniel made public the last group photo of the band. Kang Daniel posted the photo on his social media channel with other members' consent While still missing the group, fans are wishing only the best for the members.