Morohashi Museum of Modern Art

The Morohashi Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located in Kitashiobara, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1999, the institution is situated within Bandai-Asahi National Park near Goshiki-numa, offering views of Mount Bandai. The museum holds particular significance for its permanent collection of over three hundred forty works by Salvador Dali, which ranks it as the third largest Dali museum in the world and the sole Dali museum in Asia. Alongside its extensive surrealist holdings, the museum also owns works by prominent European painters such as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

The museum originated from the private collection of Japanese entrepreneur Teizo Morohashi, founder of the sports and apparel retailer XEBIO Corporation, which is headquartered in Koriyama. A passionate admirer of Dali and surrealism, Morohashi began purchasing a wide range of the artist's works, alongside paintings by figures such as Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Sources vary on the exact start date of his collecting, placing it around 1980 or 1991. To house his growing collection, Morohashi decided to build a dedicated museum. Construction began in 1997 and was completed the following year. The Morohashi Museum of Modern Art officially opened to the public in 1999. The institution is a registered museum facility, and its current director is Eiji Morohashi, the eldest son of the founder.

The museum's primary focus is the artwork of Salvador Dali, a dedication reflected in its official website URL, dali.jp. The permanent collection features approximately three hundred forty Dali pieces, encompassing paintings, sculptures, and prints. The majority of these artworks were acquired from major auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's. Beyond Dali, the museum holds around thirty paintings by other modern Western painters, with a particular emphasis on Impressionism and subsequent movements. This broader collection includes works by Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miro, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, and Tsuguharu Foujita, among others.

The Dali paintings in the collection include Cabaret Scene, The Battle of Tetouan, The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, Portrait of Gala and the Lobster, An Allegory of the Sunset Atmosphere, The Statue of Olympian Zeus, Landscape with Butterflies and Grapes, The Tower of Time with Butterflies, Portrait of Mrs. Jack Warner, Portrait of Ann Woodward, and Girls in a Garden. The Dali sculptures encompass Image of the Universe, Profile of Time, The Persistence of Memory, The Snail and the Angel, Vision of an Angel, Woman with a Rose Head, Tribute to Newton, Alice in Wonderland, Cabinet in the Shape of an Anthropomorphic Body, Swan-Elephant, and Venus with Drawers.

The museum building is situated within Bandai-Asahi National Park in Kitashiobara, Fukushima Prefecture. The site is located near Goshiki-numa, a cluster of volcanic lakes, and provides visitors with views of Mount Bandai. Construction of the facility to house the Morohashi collection began in 1997 and was completed in 1998, preceding the museum's public opening in 1999.

The Morohashi Museum of Modern Art is located in Kitashiobara, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It operates as a registered museum facility under the direction of Eiji Morohashi. The institution maintains an official website at dali.jp, which provides information in Japanese, English, and Chinese, alongside an official blog and a YouTube channel. It holds the distinction of being the only museum in Asia dedicated to Dali's work and the third largest such collection globally, following the Dali Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Spain, and the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.