DIC Corporation Decides to ‘Downsize and Relocate’ Japan’s DIC Museum, Which Has Works by Rothko, Picasso, and Rembrandt

Japanese chemical company DIC Corporation announced in a press release Saturday that its board of directors had decided to “downsize and relocate” the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, an institution in the city of Sakura, 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, that it owns.

In August, ARTnews reported that the company, which is severly in debt, was reevaluating the future of the museum.

In the press release, published December 26, the company said that the downsizing plan would see DIC Corp sell 25 percent of the 384 works in the museum that it owns. The total value of DIC Corp-owned works is $77.5 million, the company said in August. The museum would then relocate to “a facility in Tokyo that is accessible to many stakeholders and where the works of art can be more easily exhibited to the public.” The company is currently in negotiations with one location with the aim of reaching an agreement by March 2025.

Two other options discussed for the museum, according to the press release, were “maintaining the status quo” or “discontinuing operations.”

Built in 1990, the DIC Museum houses a collection of 754 artworks, including seven of Mark Rothko’s “Seagram Murals” and paintings by Cy Twombly, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Robert Ryman.

Since DIC Corp announced that it was evaluating the future of the museum in August, 50,000 people from Sakura have signed a petition calling for it to remain in the city. Another petition signed by 261 members of the Japanese Council of Art Museums (JCAM) “emphasized the importance to continue the current museum,” the press release reads. As a result of the petitions and the reaction from Sakura’s residents, DIC Corp said it will explore ways for “the local community and third parties [to] use the [museum’s] gardens and peripheral facilities” after it closes.

DIC Corp’s board of directors, which is advised by the company’s Corporate Value Improvement Committee, said that the cost of the possible relocation would be “capped at several hundred million yen.” It added that the museum’s operating balance would be improved by reducing operating costs and boosting visitor numbers. Relocating would also include running the museum in partnership with a “highly public organization,” rather than independently, as it is now.

“It is difficult to forecast in monetary terms the intangible value to be gained through the operation of a new museum in a new location, however the board has determined that the potential social value and brand value are highly significant,” DIC Corp said.

Regarding selling 25 percent of the artworks, DIC Corp said “Highly acclaimed works of great cultural significance and/or works considered key components of the museum collection will be dealt with very carefully,” and that it will do its “utmost to ensure [any sold works] remain publicly accessible.”

The company stated that it expects the sales to “generate at least ¥10 billion [over $63 million] in cash inflow in fiscal year 2025, although this amount may change depending on market conditions.”

“The remaining works of art not to be retained will be sold in stages from fiscal year 2026 onwards,” the press release said. “DIC intends to apply the cash generated through the sale of works of art to returns to shareholders, investments in growth, and costs associated with relocation and operation of the museum, but the scale and timing of allocations is yet to be determined.”

Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who appeared on ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list this year, posted a series of comments on the social media network X in September about the DIC Museum’s fate, expressing his desire to prevent the artworks being sold to non-Japanese collectors.

“I will be waiting,” he posted.

Hong Kong–based Oasis Management, an activist fund with a reputation for demanding aggressive changes at Japanese companies, is a major shareholder in DIC Corp.

In July, Oasis’s founder and chief investment officer, Seth Fischer, said Japanese asset managers are increasingly in favor of the activist fund targeting poorly performing companies. Oasis, which does not publicly declare its assets under management, has initiated high-profile change campaigns at several Japanese firms over the past year.

“Our best allies are domestic asset managers who today see bad corporate governance as shameful,” Fischer said.

The Japanese government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have been putting pressure on companies to improve their corporate governance and capital allocation over the past decade, with a view to drawing in more international investors.

The current DIC Museum will close on April 1, 2025.

Neither DIC Corp nor Oasis replied to ARTnews’ request for comment by press time.