He was the man credited with transforming Samsung into the world's largest smartphone and memory chip maker.

And now the family of Lee Kun-hee are giving back, saying on Wednesday that they will pay more than 12 trillion won - or $10.8 billion- in inheritance taxes.

They will also donate his vast private art collection to state curators.

Lee died on October 25, leaving an estate valued at around $23 billion.

Now the hefty inheritance tax bill is one of the largest-ever globally.

The family said they planned to pay the tax over a period of five years in six installments, starting this month.

Their moves had been closely watched, amid talk of a big donation to make reparations for Lee's conviction on tax evasion and embezzlement charges over a decade ago.

The family announced a plan to donate nearly $1 billion to improve public healthcare- with half of that going towards building South Korea's first specialist hospital for infectious diseases.

Much of Lee's extensive personal art collection, including masterpieces by Picasso and Monet, will be donated to organizations including the National Museum of Korea.

Yonhap news agency said the remaining works will be managed by the family and the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art.

Shares in holding company Samsung C&T fell after the news.

Investors worried over a lack of detail on how the payments would be funded or what would happen to Lee's shares.