A Korean-American collector has raised controversy over the acquisition path of several works of Chester Chang’s donation to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), including Lee Jung-seob’s ‘Children Playing on a Pole’.
The collector, who says he traded works with Chang, alleges that Chang threatened him and took them from him more than 20 years ago.
Lee Jung-seob’s ‘Children Playing on a Pole’ featured in the exhibition “Korean Treasures From The Chester And Cameron Chang Collection,” is one of the works that has been questioned for forgery. Suspicions are now spreading as questions are raised about Chang’s collection process.
Changki Baek, 68, showed photographs of the objects he traded with Chang in 2002, along with the contracts and records he made at the time.
According to Baek, he sold three art pieces to Chang for $25,000 in 2002, including Lee Jung-seob’s ‘Children Playing on a Pole’ from his personal collection, ‘Black Porcelain’ believed to be Goryeo Dynasty ceramics, and ‘Chunghwa Baekja’. “A month later, Chang threatened me for months, claiming that some of the pieces were stolen, and I had to return all the money I had received,” Baek claimed.
Baek provided evidence of the contract to the Korea Daily. One of the documents he presented was a letter dated August 12, 2002, in his handwriting and allegedly signed by Chang.
It states, “We agree not to dispute any issues regarding the acquisition of 2 porcelain pieces ‘Black Porcelain-Chunghwa Baekja’ and 1 painting ‘Lee Jung-seob tiles)’ to CHESTER CHANG.” The signatures of Chang as the acquirer and Baek as the transferee are also listed on the agreement.
A financial transaction record created by Baek on August 10, 2002, states that “Chang took one piece of black porcelain and gave $10,000 in cash and $13,000 and $2,000 in checks for a total of $25,000.” The written documentation shows further exchanges of money.
Baek also kept a check from Chang around the same time. The check was made out by “CHESTER CHANG”.
“The problem started a week later,” Baek claimed. “Chang was particularly adamant about the black porcelain, saying that it was stolen,” Baek said, “and especially about Lee Jung-Seob’s piece, which he said he had researched and could be a fake, and he screamed at me not to scam him.”
“He told me to bring all my records at home, including photos and films of the works, which I did,” he added. “Chang harassed me for months, going back and forth from business to business,” Baek claimed. “He showed me his red passport (official passport) and threatened me, saying, ‘If I say something, I can even make an airplane drop,’ and ‘If you don’t want to close the business, come clean and pay me back.'”
Baek said he was afraid the business would fail because he had elementary school-aged children and returned almost all of his money in January 2003. According to Baek, the original contract, which was handwritten by the two of them, was signed by both of them, stating that “We confirm that we complete the transaction of all the paintings ‘Tiles,’ ‘Children Playing on a Pole,’ and the ceramics with Dr. Chang and that we have no objection to the future date of 1/17/03.”
However, Chang never returned the items, Baek claims.
And only seven months later, in August 2003, Baek said, he learned that the black porcelain Chang had taken was featured in an exhibition of Korean art at LACMA.
“Since then, I have not been able to contact Chang,” Baek said, adding, “When I heard about the exhibition of ‘Children Playing on a Pole’, I made a dramatic contact with him around October last year, but he said, ‘Let’s talk later’ and hung up, and I haven’t heard from him again since then.”
“To this day, I’m still frustrated and resentful,” he said, adding, “He should be ashamed of himself for collecting and displaying works like that.”
Chang denied Baek’s claims outright. On August 23, Chang told the Korea Daily, “It’s ridiculous, I don’t know how many times I went back to return the money.” He further said, ”I don’t have a single copy of the alleged contract,” adding, “I don’t know what he is trying to do to me. It’s almost scary.”
BY SUAH JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.suah@koreadaily.com]
