A work of art hiding in plain sight in Tokyo.

You don’t have to be an art expert to have heard about Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. As one of the world’s most famous artworks, Sunflowers has been widely praised for its depth of expression within a limited colour palette, and people travel far and wide to see them on display.

There were once seven Sunflowers in existence – the Dutch painter often painted copies of his best works — until one with a unique blue background, which was shipped to a collector in Japan in 1920, was destroyed by fire during the bombing of Osaka in World War II.

Now, six remain, with one held in a private collection and the others displayed in museums in Munich, London, Philadelphia, Amsterdam…and Tokyo.

The Tokyo Sunflowers are on display at the Sompo Museum in Shinjuku, and to get there, simply get off at JR Shinjuku Station…

▼ …take the West Exit…

▼…and after a short four-minute walk you’ll be at the museum.

Admission is a very reasonable 800 yen (US$5.40), and children, junior high, and high school students get in for free. This is a remarkably good deal, considering most of the other museums where the Sunflowers are held charge roughly US$30 for entry.

▼ To get to the Sunflowers, you’ll first want to head to the fifth floor for the temporary exhibition, which when we visited, was the FACE exhibition.

▼ Follow the route down to the fourth floor…

▼ …and then the third, where you’ll see signs pointing you to the famous artwork.

▼ “Sunflowers” is “ひまわり” (“Himawari”) in Japanese.

It won’t take long before your eyes are dazzled by the brilliant golden hues of this 19th century masterpiece.

This version, which dates back to 1888, is a thick impasto painted after the one currently held by the National Gallery in London. The sign beside the artwork reads:

“In February 1888, Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles in the south of France, and in August of that year, while waiting for the arrival of Paul Gauguin, he began to work on a series of paintings of sunflowers. His aim was to decorate Gauguin’s room with suflowers. Van Gogh painted seven versions of the motif of “sunflowers in a vase,” which are believed to have been based on the painting Sunflowers currently in the collection of the National Gallery in London. Compared to the painting in London, however, there are differences in the overall colors and brushwork of the paintings in this series, and it is thus believed that throughout the Sunflowers series Van Gogh was studying the effects of color, lightness, and touch.”

Non-flash photography is permitted for Sunflowers, with stipulations outlined on the signboard in the building.

▼ In the gift shop, you’ll find lots of Sunflowers merchandise.

The story of how this painting came to exist in the world adds to the fascination surrounding it, but how it came to be at this museum, and other museums around the world, is another story.

In 1987, this particular painting was sold by auction at Christie’s to the Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company (now known as Sompo Japan Insurance) for 5.3 billion yen (US$35.77 million by current exchange rates), which was the most ever paid for an artwork at the time. 

However, in 2022, a lawsuit was filed against Sompo by the descendants and lawful heirs of Berlin banker Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who previously owned all seven Sunflowers and was said to have sold the paintings under Nazi duress. They sought to reclaim the painting under the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, but in 2024, a U.S. federal judge dismissed the case, saying it had no jurisdiction over the Japanese company that owns it.

While the group who filed the lawsuit claims the company purchased the painting with knowledge of its links to Nazi policies, Sompo categorically denies these claims, saying it was purchased from Christie’s in London in 1987 as a matter of public record.

So if you do decide to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in Tokyo, you can do so with full knowledge of its history and background. The history that exists in the art world is just as storied as the artworks themselves, and if the paintings could speak, what tales they would tell.

Museum information

Sompo Museum of Art / SOMPO美術館
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishi-shinjuku 1-26-1
東京都新宿区西新宿1-26-1
Open: 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (last entry 5:30 p.m.)
Closed: Mondays, New Year’s holidays, and periodically during changes of exhibits
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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