The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Artwork, a personal 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 big DIC Company and ceased operations on the finish of March, has consigned its treasures to Christie’s. They’re collectively anticipated to usher in no less than $60m throughout a number of gross sales this autumn in New York. Eight of the works shall be included in Christie’s night public sale of Twentieth-century artwork, led by a 1907 Claude Monet Nypmhéas portray that’s estimated to convey no less than $40m.
Cyanne Chutkow, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and Trendy artwork, described the Monet in a press release as an indication of the artist’s “unmatched capacity to seize the essence of nature’s atmospheric magnificence” and “an excellent instance from the Impressionist grasp’s most prized collection”.
Monet’s Nymphéas collection, through which he depicted the water lilies within the backyard of his residence in Giverny in diaphanous compositions of blues, greens and purples, is his second-most profitable collection at public sale after his famed haystack work. The very 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 shall be supplied in Christie’s marquee night sale of Trendy artwork embody a Pierre-Auguste Renoir Baigneuse from 1891 and a pair of Marc Chagall work.
The larger of the 2 Chagall works, measuring 9 ft extensive and practically seven ft 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), encompasses a group of allegorical pictures 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 crucial 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 modern artwork, mentioned in a press release. Extra works from the museum’s assortment shall be supplied throughout Christie’s day gross sales in New York this November.
The museum’s holdings, which additionally embody Japanese artwork, are thought of to be among the best 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 embody seven of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, which have been housed in a devoted Rothko Room—one in all solely 4 such areas on the earth.
Final September, the board of administrators of DIC International introduced what was initially framed as a brief 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 might reopen in some kind 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 International. On the time all the assortment was valued at round $76m. In 2013, the museum quietly bought its monumental Barnett Newman, Anna’s Mild (1968), for $105.7m.
Along with the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Artwork works, Christie’s upcoming New York auctions will embody a bunch of works from the gathering of the late on line casino mogul and philanthropist Elaine Wynn (anticipated to convey $75m) and a trove of works from the property of collectors Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross, which is anticipated to promote for upwards of $180m.
The rival public sale home Sotheby’s, for its half, will provide 37 works from the gathering of Jay and Cindy Pritzker which are 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.
