Calligraphy created by assassin while awaiting execution breaking auction records in South Korea

Calligraphy by a South Korean independence hero, created while awaiting execution for assassinating a Japanese leader, is breaking new auction records in Seoul, as the country’s ultra-rich seek to bring historic artwork home. Revered in the South for his efforts to defend the country against Japanese encroachment, Ahn Jung-geun is best known for his dramatic, high-stakes assassination of Japan’s first prime minister, Ito Hirobumi, in 1909 at a train station in Harbin. Ahn shouted “Hurrah for Korea!” as he was arrested, according to the Association for Asian Studies based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was hanged for the killing by…