The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Artwork, a non-public museum created on the outskirts of Tokyo in 1990, is cashing in on its assortment of canonical Western Modernism. The museum, which was owned by the chemical compounds large DIC Company and ceased operations on the finish of March, has consigned its treasures to Christie’s. They’re collectively anticipated to usher in at the least $60m throughout a number of gross sales this autumn in New York. Eight of the works will likely be included in Christie’s night public sale of Twentieth-century artwork, led by a 1907 Claude Monet Nypmhéas portray that’s estimated to carry at the least $40m.
Cyanne Chutkow, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and Fashionable artwork, described the Monet in an announcement as an indication of the artist’s “unmatched potential to seize the essence of nature’s atmospheric magnificence” and “an excellent instance from the Impressionist grasp’s most prized sequence”.
Monet’s Nymphéas sequence, by which he depicted the water lilies within the backyard of his dwelling in Giverny in diaphanous compositions of blues, greens and purples, is his second-most profitable sequence at public sale after his famed haystack work. The best worth paid for one of many Nymphéas compositions is $84.6m (together with charges) for Nymphéas en fleur (1914-17), which Christie’s bought as a part of its blockbuster public sale of works from the gathering of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018. (Just one Monet, the sunlit Meules from 1890, has introduced extra at public sale, promoting for $110.7m at Sotheby’s in 2019.)
Along with the stand-out Nymphéas, the group of Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum works that will likely be supplied in Christie’s marquee night sale of Fashionable artwork embrace a Pierre-Auguste Renoir Baigneuse from 1891 and a pair of Marc Chagall work.
The larger of the 2 Chagall works, measuring 9 toes vast and almost seven toes tall, is Le songe du Roi David (1966), a vibrant dreamscape that features a number of scenes, amongst them the titular determine of King Davd in addition to the skyline of Paris. The opposite Chagall, Le soleil rouge ou Le soleil des amoureux (1949), includes a group of allegorical photos round a central couple.
Marc Chagall, Le songe du Roi David, 1966 Courtesy Christie’s Pictures Ltd
“The breadth and scope of masterpieces featured on this assortment is unparalleled, spanning a very powerful actions of artwork historical past all through the Twentieth century, together with best-in-class examples of portraiture, panorama, abstraction and the avant-garde,” Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman of post-war and up to date artwork, mentioned in an announcement. Further works from the museum’s assortment will likely be supplied throughout Christie’s day gross sales in New York this November.
The museum’s holdings, which additionally embrace Japanese artwork, are thought of to be among the finest collections of Western artwork in Japan. Amongst its treasures are works by Pablo Picasso, René Magritte, Cy Twombly, Frank Stella, Joseph Cornell, Kurt Schwitters and Rembrandt. Its key works additionally embrace seven of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, which had been housed in a devoted Rothko Room—one among solely 4 such areas on this planet.
Final September, the board of administrators of DIC World introduced what was initially framed as a short lived closure of the museum in January 2025, which was adopted by a everlasting closure on 31 March 2025. On the time of its closure the museum mentioned it could reopen in some type on the Worldwide Home of Japan in central Tokyo in 2030.
Critics attributed the choice to shutter the museum, which had seen a surge in guests following the lifting of Japan’s Covid-era journey restrictions in October 2022, to the profit-driven priorities of the Hong Kong-based Oasis Administration, which owns a majority stake in DIC World. On the time the whole assortment was valued at round $76m. In 2013, the museum quietly bought its monumental Barnett Newman, Anna’s Gentle (1968), for $105.7m.
Along with the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Artwork works, Christie’s upcoming New York auctions will embrace a bunch of works from the gathering of the late on line casino mogul and philanthropist Elaine Wynn (anticipated to carry $75m) and a trove of works from the property of collectors Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross, which is predicted to promote for upwards of $180m.
The rival public sale home Sotheby’s, for its half, will supply 37 works from the gathering of Jay and Cindy Pritzker which can be anticipated to usher in round $120m, and 55 works from the gathering of the late cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder, that are collectively anticipated to fetch round $400m.
