Rolex Day-Date starts at 35 million won...Seoul Auction to auction 99 lots seized from taxpayers with large tax arrears

[Financial News] Rolex watches, Hermès bags, gold bars and other items seized by the National Tax Service (NTS) from taxpayers with large tax arrears will go up for auction at Seoul Auction Co. Ltd. on the 14th. The sale is being held to collect unpaid taxes, and the combined starting bids for 99 lots, including bundled lots, total 344.7 million won.
According to Seoul Auction Co. Ltd. on the 10th, the NTS special auction was organized as part of the 2026 Auction Show. The 81 online lots will close one by one starting at 2 p.m. on the 14th. At 4 p.m., 18 lots will go under the hammer in an in-person auction on the fifth basement level of Seoul Auction Gangnam Center in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul.■ Day-Date at the in-person auction, gold bars onlineThe Rolex Day-Date has the highest starting bid in the in-person auction, at 35 million won. It is an automatic watch with a blue dial that displays the date and day of the week. Bidding for the same brand’s Datejust starts at 5 million won, while Cartier’s Ballon Bleu starts at 3 million won.
The starting bids for Hermès leather bags, the Kelly 25 and Birkin 25, made last year are 12 million won and 14 million won, respectively. Chanel’s black Large Classic Double Flap Bag starts at 3 million won, while both of the Coco Crush rings made of 18-karat gold and diamonds start at 8 million won.
Online, three bottles of Yamazaki whisky and two bottles of Ballantine’s 30-year-old whisky will each be offered as a separate lot with a starting bid of 0 won. A lot of six 24-karat gold bars (224.8 grams in total) starts at 20 million won. Bidding starts at 4.5 million won for a Brompton folding bicycle with a titanium frame and 6 million won for the Hermès Birkin 30.
The items and their components can be viewed at a preview exhibition on the first basement level of Seoul Auction Gangnam Center through the 14th. Those bidding on in-person lots must register at the auction room and place their bids there. To bid online, participants must register as members and complete identity verification on the Seoul Auction Co. Ltd. website. Under an NTS notice, buyers must pay a fee set out in the auction house’s terms and conditions in addition to the winning bid.■ Separate auctions for works by Albers and NaraSix seized artworks have been scheduled for separate sales from the special auction on the 14th: the Evening Sale at 5 p.m. on the 23rd and the Contemporary Day Sale at 4 p.m. on the 24th. The 23rd sale will feature Josef Albers’s 1969 painting Homage to the Square and Yoshitomo Nara’s 2006 sculpture The Puff Marshies Mini. Their low estimates are 350 million won and 100 million won, respectively.
Two works, including Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Murano glass piece Collier Alessandrita et Cristal, are included in the auction on the 23rd. The following day, Precious Stonewall (Yellow), made with yellow glass, and an installation by Tomás Saraceno will go under the hammer.
Seoul Auction Co. Ltd. is a professional sales agency designated by the NTS and handles the sale of seized assets through monthly regular auctions. Tax offices receive the proceeds after the deduction of sales agency fees and other costs, then distribute them under the National Tax Collection Act toward tax arrears and secured claims, among other liabilities. Any remaining amount is returned to the tax debtor.
At the special auction on March 11, all 76 lots were sold. Seoul Auction Co. Ltd. reported total hammer proceeds of about 1.2 billion won, around 6.1 times the combined starting bids of about 197 million won.

[email protected] Jang In-seo Reporter