Christie's auction house has secured a major consignment from the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in Japan, featuring an exceptional collection of Western masterpieces that will be offered during the company's fall marquee auctions. The collection includes works by renowned artists Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Henry Moore, representing what Christie's describes as a rare opportunity for distinguished collectors to acquire pieces from one of Japan's most prestigious Western art collections.
The star lot of the consignment is Claude Monet's oil painting "Nymphéas" (Water Lilies) from 1907, which carries a low estimate of $40 million. According to Imogen Kerr, Christie's co-head of the 20th century evening sale, this particular work represents "a particularly colorful, beautiful and powerful example of what makes the Nymphéas renowned as arguably the greatest and most triumphant series of Monet's career." Kerr emphasized that the painting's dynamic vertical orientation reflects the important influence of Japanese art that can be observed throughout Monet's body of work.
Christie's will also present several other significant works from the collection, including Marc Chagall's "Le songe du Roi David" (The Dream of King David) from 1966 and "Le soleil rouge" (The Red Sun) from 1949, as well as Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Baigneuse" (Bather) from 1891. These four major works will be featured among eight pieces in Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale scheduled for November, while additional works from the collection will be sold in the auction house's day sales for Impressionist and Modern Art as well as Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Cyanne Chutkow, Christie's deputy chairman of Impressionist and Modern art, praised Renoir's "Baigneuse" as "a celebrated depiction of one of his most favored subjects—the female nude." She noted that the 1891 painting, created with expressive brushwork and an Impressionist interplay of color and light, exemplifies the sensual beauty for which Renoir is renowned. Regarding Chagall's contributions, Chutkow described "Le songe du Roi David" as a monumental, vibrantly colored work where the artist employs the scale of a grand history painting to create a multi-figure masterpiece—a dreamscape centered around King David, a favored recurring theme in Chagall's work. The 1949 piece "Le soleil rouge" was characterized as offering "a poetic vision of romantic love."
The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, located in Sakura city approximately 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, is owned by the DIC Corporation, a major Japanese chemical company. Established in 1990, the museum built an internationally renowned collection that includes seven of Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals and paintings by contemporary and historical masters such as Cy Twombly, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Robert Ryman. The museum's total collection comprises 754 artworks, with 384 pieces owned directly by DIC Corporation and valued at approximately $77.5 million.
Last December, the museum's board of directors announced their decision to downsize and relocate the institution, which includes selling 25 percent of the 384 artworks owned by DIC Corporation. The company has stated that it expects the art sales to generate at least 10 billion yen (over $63 million) in cash inflow during fiscal year 2025, though this figure may fluctuate depending on market conditions. This strategic decision has drawn both support and criticism from various stakeholders in the art world.
Japanese billionaire and prominent art collector Yusaku Maezawa, who appeared on ARTnews' Top 200 Collectors list in 2023, expressed his concerns about the sale on social media platform X last September. "Regarding the closure of the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, if the collection is to be sold, I hope that they will first approach Japanese buyers so that the many masterpieces do not leave Japan," Maezawa stated. He further emphasized his sense of responsibility as a collector, writing: "Japanese people need to protect Japan's traditional things, whether it's the land, nature, art, or traditional culture, as much as possible. If we sell them off piece by piece for short-term profit, Japan will no longer be Japan."
The sale has also faced institutional criticism from international investors. Earlier this year in April, Hong Kong-based activist fund Oasis Management, which is a major shareholder of DIC Corporation, publicly criticized the decision to sell the artworks, calling it "highly inappropriate." This opposition highlights the complex dynamics between corporate ownership, cultural preservation, and shareholder interests in the contemporary art market.
Christie's has expressed confidence in the market appeal of these works, particularly noting the universal attraction of Monet's paintings. Kerr highlighted that "Christie's has seen exceptional success with the finest examples of Impressionism, particularly those of Monet's oeuvre, within the context of the 20th Century Evening Sale." She emphasized that "Monet's appeal is uniquely universal—we see collectors participating from across America, Europe, the Middle East, and particularly Asia," suggesting strong international interest in the upcoming auctions.
