A dot painting by Korean abstract pioneer Kim Whanki that has never been exhibited or offered at auction will headline Seoul Auction's evening sale on 23 November, carrying a low estimate of 2.8 billion won, roughly $2.1 million. The 1971 canvas, titled 30-XI-71 #212, was painted in New York and held by an American collector for decades, out of public view until now.

The work is unusual even within Kim's celebrated dot paintings. Blue dots bleed into one another across a canvas 152 centimetres wide, broken by bands of bright yellow and red dots that give the composition its rhythm. The reverse is signed 30-XI-71 Whanki New York #212. Seoul Auction said it confirmed the painting through the Whanki Foundation's archive, and the canvas went on public view at the house's Gangnam Center on Wednesday.

The evening sale will offer 34 works with a combined low estimate of about 19 billion won. Alongside the Kim, the sale includes Damien Hirst's large butterfly-wing painting The Importance of Elsewhere - The Kingdom of Heaven from 2006, with a low estimate of 2.4 billion won, and Lee Ufan's From Point from 1977 at 1.25 billion won. Seoul Auction held its first evening sale last year, when Marc Chagall's Bouquet de Fleurs sold for 9.4 billion won, then a record for an art auction in Korea.

The sale anchors Seoul Auction's 2026 Auction Show, which runs until 24 November and packs 12 auctions and eight exhibitions featuring around 1,000 works into two weeks. It is the first such event the house has staged in 19 years, and it ranges from a tax-seized-assets sale to a display of Pokemon cards and a solo show by American artist Devon DeJardin. Yoon Hyun-sik, head of the house's overseas strategy team, said demand for proven modern art such as Kim's remains strong even though the wider market has yet to recover fully. Admission to the show is 22,000 won with unlimited re-entry.