Korea

Hot on the heels of the announcement that it would be bringing its flagship Equus luxury sedan to the North American market comes the launch of the Equus VL500 limousine. The stretched limo measures a foot longer than the luxury automobile on which it is based, and beats the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S500L and Lexus LS460L by some 15 inches, providing rear-seat passengers with that much extra legroom.

Although it hardly ranks among the top premium marques on this side of the ocean, Hyundai has quickly risen to the number four spot among automakers worldwide, and is certainly the largest in its domestic market, where the Equus VL500 is being launched exclusively for the time being. Prices hover around the Korean Won equivalent of $120,000, and three examples have even been outfitted with full bomb-proof armor for the President of South Korea, which will be used at the upcoming G20 summit there next year.

Chanel may have just pulled the plug (as we reported last month) on its Zaha Hadid-designed Mobile Art Pavilion, but Prada is going ahead with plans for an even more ambitious project. Despite the economy, the luxury Italian fashion house just began construction on the Prada Transformer, a tetrahedron-shaped "transformative building" designed by starchitect Rem Koolhaas (rendering above), on the grounds of Gyeonghui Palace in Seoul, Korea. Koolhaas, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2000 and also designed the Prada flagship store in Manhattan, describes the building as a "dynamic and living organism'' because it transforms itself into different structures to suit various events. The location of the project, the single largest communications platform for the Prada group worldwide in 2009, speaks to the importance of the Asian market in a depressed luxury goods environment.

Scheduled to open at the end of March, the Prada Transformer will stage a range of art, cinema, culture and fashion events though August. the 65-ft. high tetrahedron is composed of four different shapes, a hexagon, cross, rectangle and circle. "Once a month, cranes will lift and rotate the structure into a different facade and floor plate configuration," the Korea Times reports. "When rotated, each side will be the venue of a different cultural program." On the outside, the entire structure will be wrapped with an elastic translucent membrane. Prada partnered with LG Electronics (makers of the Prada cell phone) and the Hyundai Motor Company on the ambitious scheme, which if successful will probably travel to other cities as well.

Can Prada make a Hyundai chic? The famed Italian fashion house has designed a version of Hyundai's upscale sedan, the Genesis which will be exhibited at the the Seoul Motor Show next April. There will be just three of these cars and two will be auctioned for charity at the Prada Transformer, a temporary building which will host cultural, artistic and fashion events in Seoul.

The hunger for art, or more aptly his wife's hunger for art, can get a man in trouble. Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung, allegedly used over $64 million from a corporate slush fund to buy art for his wife Ra Hee Hong Lee who is director-general of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. The big mystery is, where has the art gone? It hasn't been exhibited in Korea and its whereabouts is presently unknown. Samsung has denied the allegations but the National Assembly has approved an independent investigation. The move has caused other Korean corporations to stop buying art and caused the country's two main auction houses to report a 20% drop in sales.

One painting in question is Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears, 1964, bought at Christie's New York in 2002 for $7,159,500, a record price for the artist at the time. The painting is said to have been bought at the auction on behalf of the chairman's wife by Hong Seong-won, director of the Seoul-based Seomi Gallery. Kim Yong-chul, head of the legal department of the Samsung Group Restructuring Office from 1997 to 2004, has released a full list of the art alleged to have been bought with money from the Samsung slush fund as well as details of payments made to Christie's that according to The Art Newspaper, includes 30 paintings and photographs including works by Donald Judd, Gerhard Richter and David Hockney. Samsung supplied The Art Newspaper with a statement saying that the allegations are groundless and that the list is of works of art purchased by Seomi Gallery alone and that neither Mrs Hong Lee nor the Samsung Museum of Art were involved in the purchase of "Happy Tears." Where is "Happy Tears" now? Seomi Gallery first said they sold"Happy Tears" to a private collector and then quickly retracted that and told Korean reporters she still had the painting but that other works on the list have been sold to various collectors.

Flat panel TVs look great, sleek and far less bulky than any ordinary TV, especially if you choose a large screen size. Unfortunately, unless you have a niche in the wall carved out for the screen - which is a good idea, but can be a hassle - there will be wires along your wall connecting the cable, DVD and any other relevant equipment. The Samsung SPD-50P7HDT Wireless is a 50" flat screen that solves these problems. It comes with a wireless AV center to which all of your extra equipment can attach. The center then transmits the signals to the screen, hanging wire-free (except for the power cord) on the wall. It's only available in Korea at the moment, and is priced around $5,000.

Every so often you come across an idea that seems to obvious that you wonder why no one ever thought of it before - and if someone has done it before, why it wasn't a commercially successful venture. The Sun Photo Binoculars are the ultimate binoculars for traveling because they have a built-in 2megapixel digital camera with an 8x zoom. There is no doubt that future models of the binoculars are already being developed to have both a higher resolution and video capabilities, since you can even find those features in mobile phones, but the idea of combining binoculars and a camera is a great one. It means that nature lovers and sports fans will not have to constantly switch back and forth between a camera and bioniculars to capture pictures of their favorite moments. Right now, Sun Photo is only available in Korea, for 370,000 KRW ($388).

Hot on the heels of the European release of their LG KG800 "Chocolate" phone, LG has introduced an even more interesting version in South Korea. The LG KV6000 looks even more like a chocolate bar than the previous model due to its gold accents, but is also available in a black and silver color scheme. It is slightly thicker than the KG800, with a 1.3-megapixel camera and room for up to 120 mp3 tracks. According to Engadget, the starting price is around $530, though the plane ticket to Korea will run you a bit more.

 

I've seen plenty of stories on how Asian countries are interested in learning more about the world of wine. But how does a small winery in the U.S. get their name out across the world?  In New York they have some help. The  New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce is holding a virtual wine tasting on April 20 at Marist College in Poughkeepsie. The two-hour live telecast will give six Hudson Valley wineries fifteen minutes each to promote their goods  to more than 40 potential buyers in Korea. Meanwhile in Seoul, the buyers will sample the wines and the wineries and buyers will be able to talk to each other. Participating wineries include  Brotherhood Winery, Cascade Mountain, Warwick Valley Winery, Clinton Vineyards and Millbrook Winery.The U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea will be with the Korean buyers in Seoul and representatives from the New York State Wine and Grape Industry, U.S. Department of Commerce, Dutchess County Tourism and the Culinary Institute of America will be part of the telecast.