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Japanese chemical firm DIC Company introduced in a press launch Saturday that its board of administrators had determined to “downsize and relocate” the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Artwork, an establishment within the metropolis of Sakura, 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, that it owns.
In August, ARTnews reported that the corporate, which is severly in debt, was reevaluating the way forward for the museum.
Within the press launch, printed December 26, the corporate stated that the downsizing plan would see DIC Corp promote 25 p.c of the 384 works within the museum that it owns. The overall worth of DIC Corp-owned works is $77.5 million, the corporate stated in August. The museum would then relocate to “a facility in Tokyo that’s accessible to many stakeholders and the place the artworks could be extra simply flaunted to the general public.” The corporate is at the moment in negotiations with one location with the goal of reaching an settlement by March 2025.
Two different choices mentioned for the museum, in keeping with the press launch, have been “sustaining the established order” or “discontinuing operations.”
In-built 1990, the DIC Museum homes a set of 754 artworks, together with seven of Mark Rothko’s “Seagram Murals” and work by Cy Twombly, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Robert Ryman.
Since DIC Corp introduced that it was evaluating the way forward for the museum in August, 50,000 folks from Sakura have signed a petition calling for it to stay within the metropolis. One other petition signed by 261 members of the Japanese Council of Artwork Museums (JCAM) “emphasised the significance to proceed the present museum,” the press launch reads. Because of the petitions and the response from Sakura’s residents, DIC Corp stated it’ll discover methods for “the local people and third events [to] use the [museum’s] gardens and peripheral amenities” after it closes.
DIC Corp’s board of administrators, which is suggested by the corporate’s Company Worth Enchancment Committee, stated that the price of the potential relocation can be “capped at a number of hundred million yen.” It added that the museum’s working stability can be improved by lowering working prices and boosting customer numbers. Relocating would additionally embody operating the museum in partnership with a “extremely public group,” relatively than independently, as it’s now.
“It’s tough to forecast in financial phrases the intangible worth to be gained by means of the operation of a brand new museum in a brand new location, nonetheless the board has decided that the potential social worth and model worth are extremely vital,” DIC Corp stated.
Concerning promoting 25 p.c of the artworks, DIC Corp stated “Extremely acclaimed works of nice cultural significance and/or works thought of key elements of the museum assortment can be handled very fastidiously,” and that it’ll do its “utmost to make sure [any sold works] stay publicly accessible.”
The corporate acknowledged that it expects the gross sales to “generate no less than ¥10 billion [over $63 million] in money influx in fiscal yr 2025, though this quantity might change relying on market circumstances.”
“The remaining artworks to not be retained can be bought in phases from fiscal yr 2026 onwards,” the press launch stated. “DIC intends to use the money generated by means of the sale of artworks to returns to shareholders, investments in development, and prices related to relocation and operation of the museum, however the scale and timing of allocations is but to be decided.”
Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who appeared on ARTnews High 200 Collectors record this yr, posted a sequence of feedback on the social media community X in September in regards to the DIC Museum’s destiny, expressing his want to stop the artworks being bought to non-Japanese collectors.
“I can be ready,” he posted.
Hong Kong–primarily based Oasis Administration, an activist fund with a repute for demanding aggressive adjustments at Japanese corporations, is a serious shareholder in DIC Corp.
In July, Oasis’s founder and chief funding officer, Seth Fischer, stated Japanese asset managers are more and more in favor of the activist fund concentrating on poorly performing corporations. Oasis, which doesn’t publicly declare its belongings below administration, has initiated high-profile change campaigns at a number of Japanese companies over the previous yr.
“Our greatest allies are home asset managers who at the moment see unhealthy company governance as shameful,” Fischer stated.
The Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Inventory Trade have been placing strain on corporations to enhance their company governance and capital allocation over the previous decade, with a view to drawing in additional worldwide buyers.
The present DIC Museum will shut on April 1, 2025.
Neither DIC Corp nor Oasis replied to ARTnews’ request for remark by press time.
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