The line formed before the doors opened. When Seoul Auction opened its 2026 Auction Show on 11 November, visitors hurried to the Inch Inch Market, where 39 artists each filled a 60-centimetre booth. Lee An-on, an artist in her twenties who paints albino animals, hung 50 small works at 150,000 won each; 90 percent sold at once. Kim Dung-ji, praised by BTS member RM, also sold out early. Most participants are emerging names followed by the MZ and Zalpha generations, and the plan — small works, low prices, new collectors — worked.

The show runs until 24 November: 12 auctions, eight exhibitions and pop-ups, and roughly 1,000 lots in two weeks, from a Picasso oil painting to handbags and watches. A daily auction takes place at 4 p.m. The fifth-floor Modern exhibition, not for sale, shows Picasso, Chagall, Renoir and Morandi alongside Park Soo-keun and Lee Jung-seob; the works are valued at about 110 billion won.

The hottest draw is a 14 November auction of assets seized by the National Tax Service: 99 lots from delinquent taxpayers, with opening bids totalling 344.7 million won. A Rolex Day-Date starts at 35 million won, a Hermès Kelly 25 at 12 million and a Birkin 25 at 14 million. Six 24-karat gold bars start at 20 million won; a three-bottle Yamazaki set starts from zero. Eighteen lots can be bid on only in person, and seating is nearly full.

From 19 November the lobby turns to Pokémon cards: 100 copies of a Pikachu With Grey Felt Hat card made with the Van Gogh Museum, and a five-card set reinterpreting Munch's The Scream. Devon De Jardin, who made album art for Seventeen's The8, exhibits on the third floor. The evening sale on 23 November offers 34 works worth about 19 billion won, led by Kim Whanki's unseen 1971 dot painting, low estimate 2.8 billion won, and a Hirst butterfly painting at 2.4 billion. Korea's auction market peaked in 2022 and stays split — trophy works lift the totals while the rest is cold — and weekday visitors have already doubled.