A reliable partner that transports art works always safely and securely
Company name: The Asahi Shimbun Company
Industry: Information and telecommunications
Service used: Artwork Transportation Service (J SOLUTIONS ART)
Key points
What is needed for artwork transportation
- “Safety” to ensure that one-of-a-kind artworks are transported safely
- “Trust” underpinned by extensive experience with the transportation of artworks
JAL’s strengths in cargo transportation
- Transportation flexibility made possible by the extensive range of routes and frequency of flights
- Operations handled by JAL staff located around the world
Added value provided by JALCARGO
- A one-stop provider able to handle both artwork transportation and courier travel
- Company-wide support for culture, including publicizing exhibitions in in-flight magazines
J SOLUTIONS ART transported important artworks for a Joan Miró exhibit
The Asahi Shimbun Company has been involved in cultural activities for more than 100 years. We have hosted various art and culture exhibitions within Japan and abroad since the 1920s. Notably, we hosted exhibitions such as the "Special Viewing of the Venus de Milo" in 1964, which was the first time it was shown outside of France, and the 1965 "Tutankhamun Exhibition" which drew an audience of 2.93 million people. In 1922, we established a department dedicated to cultural activities and expanded the scope of our work to include exhibitions and concerts across a wide range of genres. Currently, we plan and host four to five large-scale exhibitions as well as many medium-sized traveling exhibitions each year, ranging from art to museums, shrines and temples, science, picture books, and characters.
I primarily handle exhibitions in the genre of fine art and have been involved with various exhibitions including "The Exhibition of Twenty Modern Calligraphers," "GENKYO YOKOO TADANORI" exhibition, and the "Iittala Stars of Finnish Glass" exhibition. Most importantly, I am in charge of the exhibition and transportation for the "Joan Miró" exhibition being held from March 2025. This exhibition introduces 97 works of art by the great Spanish artist Joan Miró and is the first major retrospective of his work in Japan in roughly 60 years. In particular, the highlight of the exhibit are the three pieces of precious works from the "Constellations" series, consisting of 23 paintings located around the world, which is a series of masterpieces painted while escaping the flames of World War II.
This project came together after consulting with the curator of the large-scale Miró exhibition held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2018 and preparing together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum with the full support of the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona.
To collect artworks from around the world, it was essential to transport them in a safe and secure manner. Our trusted partner for many years has been J SOLUTIONS ART, the artwork transportation service of JALCARGO.
The Asahi Shimbun Company and JALCARGO have a long history of cooperation, and we have often worked together on exhibitions featuring overseas artworks. For the recent Miró exhibition, J SOLUTIONS ART transported 16 works from Paris, Dallas, New York, and Frankfurt. They transported important pieces that were critical to this exhibition including one of the pieces in the aforementioned "Constellations" series, "Self‐Portrait" which shows the close relationship between Picasso and Miró, and his "Portrait of a Spanish Dancer."
Transporting safety and trust: the world of artwork transportation
When borrowing artworks from overseas to host an art exhibition, the key aspects that we emphasize are safety and trust. The borrowed works are precious, one-of-a-kind pieces of art, and the individuals or museums that own them will not loan out precious works of art unless they can verify that the work will be safely and securely transported and handled by a party they can trust.
In the case of a high-profile and extremely important showing such as the Miró exhibition, a system called the "artwork compensation system" may be used to provide government-backed compensation in the event that borrowed artwork is damaged. This system establishes strict screening and requires the submission of detailed transportation plans, which makes working with a company like JAL that has a track record of more than 50 years of transporting artworks an important factor. The owners of artworks can rest assured knowing that their precious artwork will be transported by JAL.
JALCARGO stations its own staff, who have received the same training, at various international airports, shares J SOLUTIONS ART-specific instructions with all sites, and tailors its response to the characteristics of each cargo shipment.
When J SOLUTIONS ART actually transports works, they address the requirements of the owning institution and exercise exceptional care when handling works of fine art such as "specifying that paintings be placed upright and oriented so that the painted surface faces the side of the aircraft (window side) during transport" or requiring that "works of art must not be transported together with foodstuffs and other cargo." After arriving at the airport, their staff is extremely careful when loading artwork onto specialized vehicles, and I was impressed when witnessing their meticulous care firsthand.
Flexible transportation and travel that can only be achieved by JALCARGO
For the Miró exhibition, the final list of artworks came together close to the end of 2024. We were late in confirming the transportation schedule, but JALCARGO was able to smoothly secure flights. The artworks were transported roughly one month before the start of the exhibition, and we were able to successfully open on March 1, 2025.
This experience once again highlighted JALCARGO's strengths in terms of the number of routes and flights available. This point was extremely important when borrowing works from multiple institutions as in the case of the Miró exhibition. For the Matisse exhibition, which was similarly held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 2023, works were divided across multiple flights when transporting many important works from Paris, and I believe that plan was only possible due to the large number of direct JAL flights between Paris and Haneda.
Furthermore, when transporting valuable works of art, they must be accompanied by staff members of the museum loaning the items as couriers. In the case of JAL, they can arrange both artwork transportation and courier travel as a one-stop service, so even if sudden schedule changes occur due to cargo and courier scheduling, they can flexibly adjust using the large number of flights.
JAL as a partner for creating exhibitions together
JAL is not simply a carrier but a partner who understands cultural activities, and I strongly feel that they are working together with us to create our exhibitions. It is my understanding that the ESG Promotion Department within JAL is working on the transportation of artworks as one of their projects. They have also worked with us on public relations matters such as introducing exhibitions in their in-flight magazine. Many flyers for art exhibitions are posted at the JAL headquarters, and I felt their enthusiasm for supporting culture throughout the company.
The purpose of the exhibitions that we undertake is to introduce works that many people don't know about or have never seen before and to create a place in Japan where people can see works that can only be viewed overseas. To achieve this mission, it is essential that we work with a vital partner like JALCARGO that connects the world to Japan. Going forward, we hope to continue building a deep partnership with JALCARGO, a professional in the transportation of artworks, while helping to promote culture exchanges between Japan and overseas countries.
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