Facing more pressure from activist investors to increase returns, one Japanese company is turning to its art holdings, selling off paintings by the likes of Monet and Renoir.
DIC, an ink and resin maker, has a well-known collection of art and it opened a museum near Tokyo in 1990 to house the works. But Oasis Management, DIC’s second-largest shareholder, has called on the company to sell off its holdings, saying that paintings aren’t part of the firm’s core business and they’ve weighed on its stock performance.
Some of its artwork is very valuable, such as Claude Monet’s 1907 masterpiece "Nymphéas,” which could sell for $40 million to $60 million, according to Christie’s. DIC also plans to sell seven more paintings, including works by Marc Chagall and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, at the auction house.
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