Domestic auction house, Seoul Auction, announced that a work by South Korean painter Kim Whan-ki was sold at auction for 31 million Hong Kong dollars, or about four-point-72 billion Korean won, in Hong Kong on Monday.

Kim's 1971 oil painting has become the most expensive South Korean artwork to be sold at auction, breaking the previous record set by Park Su-geun's "Washing Place," which sold for four-point-52 billion won in 2007.

The 253-by-202-centimeter artwork is known only as "19-VII-71 #209" and it's the largest of all Kim's pointillism paintings so far introduced in the market.

The piece is comprised of dots forming diagonal lines against a monochrome blue background, reminiscent of meteors streaking across a night sky.

Seoul Auction said it's the first time in nine years since a South Korean artwork has broken a record auction price and expects the milestone to draw further attention from foreign collectors to Korean artworks.