Investor Frans Broersen has been flying to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for years with "bags full of money" and has returned with hundreds of works of art.

Now, he believes he has pre-emptively secured a lucrative slice of a market so specialized it doesn't really exist.

Some critics describe Broersen's strategy as more akin to carpetbagging than collecting, disputing the overall quality of the works he has bought during seven trips to Pyongyang beginning in 2005.