Samsung heirs donate art trove to pay tax bill
April 28, 2021
Members of Samsung's founding family agreed Wednesday to donate approximately 23,000 works of art and 1 trillion won ($899 billion; €744 billion) for medical research to help pay off a massive inheritance tax bill.
Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee left his heirs a fortune of almost $21 billion (€17.3 billion) after he died last October of a heart attack at 78.
"It is our civic duty and responsibility to pay all taxes," the family, including Lee's wife and three children, said in a statement.
The family has five years to pay the inheritance tax, expected to amount to more than $10.8 billion.
In addition to shares in Samsung's various businesses, Lee left his family real estate and a collection of antiques and artwork. Some of the art being donated by the family include rare pieces by Picasso, Monet and Dali.
South Korea has a 50% inheritance tax rate, one of the highest in the world.
Who started Samsung?
Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee's father, Lee Byung-Chul. The company, which is headquartered in Seoul, has since become South Korea's largest business conglomerate, with Lee Kun-Hee turning the group into a global technology powerhouse after taking over in 1987.
Lee Kun-Hee's son, Lee Jae-yong, has served as Samsung Group's de facto leader since 2014. Lee Jae-yong has been mired in legal troubles, and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 due a bribery scandal involving South Korea's former president, Park Geun-hye.
He was released about a year later after winning an appeal, but was ordered to go through a retrial. Lee Jae-yong gave a public apology for the scandal in 2020, but was sentenced to two years and six months in prison in January.
wd/nm (Reuters, AP, AFP)