Opened on the 12th floor of the Seibu Department Store Ikebukuro in 1975, the Seibu Museum of Art was renamed Sezon Museum of Art and reopened on the first and second floors of the department store in 1989.
Held as the inaugural exhibition of  Sezon Museum of Art, this exhibition commemorated the 120th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Centered on 54 major works by two of the leading figures of Viennese fin-de-siècle art, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, it was the first exhibition in Japan to present a comprehensive survey of the cultural world of turn-of-the-century Vienna. Comprising more than 700 works, the exhibition explored a wide range of fields, including the historical development of the modern city as a site of cultural production, architecture, decorative arts, textiles, fashion, music, literature, and philosophy.
The exhibition marked a new chapter in the museum’s history, symbolizing its transition from the Seibu Museum of Art to Sezon Museum of Art.