Prince Daewon’s Villa Up for Auction

Seokpajeong, the No. 26 tangible cultural asset of Seoul which Prince Daewon used as his villa in the late 19th century, will be put up for auction.

Digital Taein, a real estate auction information company, said yesterday that Seokpajeong in Buam-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, will be auctioned on January 13 at the starting price of 4.829 billion won.

Because the owner of the villa failed to pay his debt of one billion won, the building was put up for auction with an appraised value of 7.546 billion won in December 2004. Its price then plummeted to about 60 percent of its estimated value as the attempted purchase of the villa was aborted twice last year.

Seokpajeong was originally built for Kim Heung-keun, a senior government official under the reigns of Cheoljong and Kojong in the Chosun dynasty. However, Yi Ha-eung, also known as Prince Daewon, confiscated the building after he took office and used it as his villa.

Seokpajeong is located near Jahamoon in the northern part of the Seoul fortress and is famous for its beautiful scenery including large rocks and ancient tall pine trees. The villa is 13,293 pyeong in size (one pyeong is equivalent to 3.954 sq. yards) and has a main house, a building for the male house owner, and an outhouse.

Some buildings of Seokpajeong were moved to Hongji-dong, Jongno-gu in 1958 by the calligrapher Sohn Jae-hyeong and then designated as the No. 23 tangible cultural asset of Seoul under another name “Villa for Prince Daewon” in 1974.

Lee Yeong-jin, head of the planning team at Digital Taein, said, “Excluding about 1,000 pyeong of land designated as a residential area, Seokpajeong’s land is classified as the area for development restriction, cultural asset protection, and military facilities protection, making Seokpajeong eligible as a project that taps into the characteristics of cultural assets.”

imsoo@donga.com