Japanese chemical company DIC Corporation announced in a press release on Saturday that its board of directors has decided to “downsize and relocate” the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, which it owns in the city of Sakura, 25 miles northeast of Tokyo.
August, art news The company is heavily in debt and is reassessing the future of the museum, the report said.
In a press release issued on December 26, the company said that the downsizing plan will allow DIC to sell 25% of the 384 works it owns at the museum. DIC has projects with a total value of $77.5 million, the company said in August. The museum will then relocate to “a facility in Tokyo that will be accessible to many stakeholders and where the art can be more easily displayed to the public.” The company is currently in talks with a location, aiming to have it by March 2025 Come to an agreement.
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Two other options discussed for the museum were “maintaining the status quo” or “ceasing operations,” according to the release.
The DIC Museum was built in 1990 and has a collection of 754 works of art, including Mark Rothko’s seven “Seagram Murals” as well as Cy Twombly, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Claude Paintings by Monet, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Robert Lehmann.
Since DIC announced in August that it was evaluating the museum’s future, 50,000 people in Sakura have signed a petition calling for it to stay in the city. Another petition signed by 261 members of the Japan Association of Art Museums (JCAM) “underlines the importance of continuing the existing museum,” the release said. In light of the petition and response from Sakura residents, DIC Corp said it would explore approaches from “the local community and third parties” [to] use [museum’s] After the garden and surrounding facilities are closed.
DIC Corp’s board of directors, under the guidance of the company’s Enterprise Value Improvement Committee, said the possible relocation costs “are capped at several hundred million yen.” It added that the museum’s operational balance will improve by reducing operating costs and increasing visitor numbers. The move would also include running the museum in partnership with a “highly public organization” rather than operating independently as it does now.
DIC Corp said: “It is difficult to put a monetary value on the intangible value gained from operating a new museum in a new location, but the board considers the potential social value and brand value to be significant.”
Regarding the sale of 25% of the art, DIC Corp said it “will handle highly acclaimed works of great cultural significance and/or works that are considered key components of the museum’s collection with great care” and will do its best to ensure [any sold works] Still publicly accessible. ”
The company said it expected sales to “generate at least 10 billion yen” [over $63 million] Cash inflows for fiscal 2025, although this amount may change based on market conditions. “
“The remaining unretained artworks will be sold in phases starting in fiscal year 2026,” the release said. “DIC intends to use the cash generated through art sales for shareholder returns, growth investments and costs related to the relocation and operation of the museum, But the size and timing of the distribution have yet to be determined.”
Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa appears on art news Ranked among the top 200 collectors this year, in September he posted a series of comments on social media network X about the fate of the DIC museum, expressing his desire to prevent the sale of art to non-Japanese collectors.
“I will wait,” he posted.
Hong Kong-based Oasis Management, an activist fund known for demanding radical changes at Japanese companies, is a major shareholder in DIC Corp.
In July, Oasis founder and chief investment officer Seth Fischer said Japanese asset managers were increasingly supporting activist funds targeting underperforming companies. Oasis does not publicly announce the assets it manages but has launched high-profile change campaigns at several Japanese companies in the past year.
“Our best allies are domestic asset managers who now view poor corporate governance as disgraceful,” Fisher said.
The Japanese government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have been pressuring companies over the past decade to improve corporate governance and capital allocation to attract more international investors.
The current DIC Museum will close on April 1, 2025.
Neither DIC Corp nor Oasis responded. art news’ Requests for comment were requested by press time.
