Family of late Samsung chair offload Picassos and Dalís to cut inheritance tax bill

Relatives of Lee Kun-hee to donate 23,000 artworks to South Korean national museums

The family of the late Samsung Electronics chair Lee Kun-hee have said they will pay more than 12tn won (7.8bn) in inheritance tax and donate his collection of more than 23,000 artworks - including pieces by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and one of Claude Monet's water lilies paintings - to South Korean national museums.

Lee, who is credited with transforming Samsung into the world's largest smartphone and memory chip maker, died in October 2020 aged 78 with an estate worth an estimated 26tn won. His family had until Friday to figure out how to pay the inheritance tax bill.