SEOUL — The family of late Korean painter Chun Kyung-ja (1924–2015) has lost its final legal battle against the government over a painting they have long insisted is a forgery.

On Thursday, South Korea’s Supreme Court dismissed without a hearing the appeal filed by Chun’s daughter, Kim Jeong-hee, a professor at Montgomery College in the United States. The decision effectively upholds lower court rulings that rejected her 100 million won ($72,000) damages claim against the state.

At the center of the controversy is Beautiful Woman, a portrait believed to have been painted in 1977 and once owned by former Korean Central Intelligence Agency Director Kim Jae-gyu, who orchestrated the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung Hee. The painting entered state custody in 1980 and was unveiled to the public in 1991 during a traveling exhibition organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA).

The work, featuring a gaunt face with hollow cheeks and a vacant expression, shocked Chun herself. She vehemently denied authorship, famously declaring: “What parent doesn’t recognize their own child? I never painted that.” In protest, she vowed never to paint again and eventually moved to the United States.

Despite her objections, the MMCA defended the painting’s authenticity, backed by many art experts. The dispute lay dormant for years until Chun’s death in 2015, when her family reignited the case by filing criminal complaints against museum officials, accusing them of defamation for asserting the painting was genuine.

After an eight-month probe, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office ruled in 2016 that the work was authentic, citing X-ray, infrared, and computer imaging tests, along with DNA analysis and expert reviews. Kim countered with her 2017 book Chun Kyung-ja Code, arguing the canvas lacked the recurring motifs and “visual codes” present in her mother’s verified works.

She later filed a civil damages suit in 2019, claiming prosecutors had manipulated evidence and misled the public. But courts consistently sided with the state: the Seoul Central District Court dismissed her case in 2023, the Seoul High Court affirmed the decision in April 2024, and the Supreme Court has now closed the matter. Notably, none of the rulings offered a definitive judgment on whether Beautiful Woman is genuine.

Still, Kim scored a partial victory on a separate front. In May 2024, she filed an administrative lawsuit demanding access to appraisal reports submitted during the 2016 prosecution probe. The court ordered the prosecution to release those records, and the decision was finalized last month.

With Thursday’s ruling, however, the family’s decades-long fight to strip Beautiful Woman of Chun’s name has come to an end — at least in the courts.

Sayart / Jason Yim yimjongho1969@gmail.com