[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2229634946.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA former South Korean prosecutor who allegedly tried to buy political influence with a painting by\u00a0Lee Ufan\u00a0has now been convicted on appeal, in a case that adds disputed authenticity claims surrounding a $95,000 artwork to a conventional bribery scandal involving the former first lady of Korea.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Seoul High Court this week overturned an earlier acquittal of former senior prosecutor Kim Sang-min, finding him guilty of violating South Korea\u2019s anti-corruption law after prosecutors argued he gifted a Lee Ufan painting to former first lady\u00a0Kim Keon Hee\u00a0in exchange for political support ahead of the country\u2019s 2024 parliamentary elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to\u00a0The Chosun Daily<\/em>, Kim Sang-min allegedly gifted the work\u00a0From Dots (No. 800298)<\/em>, valued at 140 million won, or roughly $95,500, while seeking help securing a nomination from the conservative People Power Party. The appeals court sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for three years, on the bribery charges, while also handing down a separate one-year suspended sentence tied to illegal political donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat pushed the case into strange territory was the question of whether the painting was authentic. Kim\u2019s defense reportedly argued that the Lee Ufan work was actually a forgery worth less than 1 million won (about $680), an argument that, if accepted, would have undercut the prosecutor\u2019s claims that the gift violated anti-graft laws governing high-value items. The appeals court rejected that argument after physically presenting the artwork in court and consulting experts, concluding the piece was in fact authentic and properly valued at 140 million won.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe ruling also revived testimony from an art dealer whose statements had helped Kim win acquittal in the lower court. While the first trial dismissed the broker as unreliable after parts of his testimony changed, appellate judges said the witness\u2019s account remained credible overall, including claims that Kim said the former first lady \u201creceived the painting and liked it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe court was unusually blunt in its criticism of Kim, writing that the longtime prosecutor had \u201cseverely damaged public trust\u201d by allegedly giving a high-value artwork to the president\u2019s wife while preparing a political run of his own. Judges also upheld separate findings that Kim improperly received about 42 million won (about $28,000) in political support tied to vehicle leases and insurance payments during preparations for his election campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tKim told reporters after the ruling that he respected the court\u2019s decision but was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d and would consult his legal team about a possible appeal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/korean-prosecutor-convicted-lee-ufan-painting-bribery-1234784702\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2229634946.jpg?w=1024″] A former South Korean prosecutor who allegedly tried to buy political influence with a painting by\u00a0Lee Ufan\u00a0has now been convicted on appeal, in a case that adds disputed authenticity claims surrounding a $95,000 artwork to a conventional bribery scandal involving the former first lady of Korea. The Seoul High Court this week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1926942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}