Christie’s has been consigned to sell works from the collection of the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art—including pieces by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Henry Moore—as part of its fall marquee auctions.
The auction house called the consignment a “rare opportunity for the most distinguished collectors” to acquire works from “one of Japan’s foremost collections of Western art”.
A top highlight from the group is Monet’s oil painting Nymphéas (1907) with a low estimate of $40 million.
“This example is a particularly colorful, beautiful and powerful example of what makes the Nympheas renowned as arguably the greatest and most triumphant series of Monet’s career,” Imogen Kerr, Christie’s co-head of the 20th century evening sale, said in a written statement to ARTnews. “The dynamic vertical orientation of the painting speaks to the important influence of Japanese art that can be observed throughout Monet’s oeuvre. 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. Monet’s appeal is uniquely universal – we see collectors participating from across America, Europe, the Middle East, and particularly Asia.”
The house will also put up Chagall’s Le songe du Roi David (1966), with an estimate of $7 million–$10 million and Le soleil rouge (1949) with an estimate of $5 million–$8 million, as well as Renoir’s Baigneuse (1891) with an estimate $6 million–$8 million.
Nymphéas, Le songe du Roi David, Le soleil rouge and Baigneuse will be included in a group of eight works in Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in November, with additional works selling in the house’s day sales for Impressionist and Modern Art as well as Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Baigneuse (1891). Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd 2025.
“Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Baigneuse is a celebrated depiction of one of his most favored subjects—the female nude. Painted in 1891 with expressive brushwork and an Impressionist interplay of color and light, this canvas exemplifies the sensual beauty for which the artist is renowned,” Cyanne Chutkow, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and Modern art, said in a press statement.
“In [Chagall’s] monumental, vibrantly colored 1966 work Le songe du Roi David, the artist employs the scale of a grand history painting to enact his multi-figure magnum opus, a dreamscape centered around the pertinent figure of King David, a favored leitmotif of the artist. Painted in 1949, Le soleil rouge offers a poetic vision of romantic love. We look forward to bringing these works to the market.”
Marc Chagall, Le songe du Roi David, 1966. Courtesy of Christies Images LTD 2025.
The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art is located in the city of Sakura, 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, and is owned by the DIC Corporation, a Japanese chemical company. It was built in 1990 and built a renowned collection, 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.
Last December, the museum’s board of directors announced that it had decided to “downsize and relocate” the institution, including the sale of 25 percent of the 384 artworks that DIC Corporation owns, which are valued at $77.5 million. The museum’s entire collection is 754 artworks.
The DIC Company previously stated that it expects the sales of the artworks 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.”
Last September, Yusaku Maezawa posted a series of comments on the social media network X about the possible sale of artworks from the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art.
“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. I will be waiting,” stated the Japanese billionaire and art collector, who appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list in 2023.
Maezawa also wrote about his sense of responsibility as a collector, saying, “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. I need to earn enough to be able to buy and pass on the things that should be passed down to future generations.”
Earlier this year in April, the Hong Kong–based activist fund Oasis Management and major shareholder of DIC Corporation criticized the decision to sell the artworks, calling it “highly inappropriate”.
With reporting by George Nelson.
