SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A palm-size work by Bae Dong-shin (1920-2008), a Korea-born world-renowned painter, was sold for 1.5 million dollars at an international art auction on eBay. The work owned by Watanabe Ryu, was sold at the auction had long been kept in Osaka, Japan. Its title is "Portrait of a Lady". A watercolor painting created in 1954 on paper of a very small size (13.4x21.4cm), it was sold to a Japanese collector.
As for the works by Bae Dong-shin, a nude painting which was 56x38cm, ten times as large as this one, was sold for 360,000 dollars to a Japanese collector around October 2014.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Art-Gallery-Watercolor-Portrait-of-Naked-Woman-Korean-Artist-DONG-SHIN-BAE-/281462483261
The recent sale of the work by Bae Dong-shin registered South Korea's highest price per ho, the size unit for Korean paintings. Further, it made Bae the first South Korean artist successively sold at eBay auction, a world-class online art market.
Meanwhile, according to BBC in July 2014, eBay signed with Sotheby for online auction operation.
http://m.bbc.com/news/business-28301139
Bae Dong-shin debuted as a painter into the Japanese art community as a full member of Jiyu Bijutsu Association in 1943 when he was selected for Jiyu Bijutsu Association Exhibition. Returned to Korea, his home country, Bae Dong-shin worked in Gwangju, his home town. And having upgraded watercolor, previously regarded as a study in Korea, to a legitimate genre of fine art, the painter was recognized in his country as the 'authority in Korean watercolor painting' when he was alive.
The specific eBay auction site below.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Art-Gallery-Watercolor-Portrait-of-Woman-Korean-Premier-Artist-DONG-SHIN-BAE-/192338233592
