In 1980, my father, Irving Yamet was contacted by Miss Peggy Fears of New York City.  She told him that she owned a Salvador Dali oil painting called the “Dreams of Venus” and that it was located in her apartment.  Upon viewing the painting, my father realized that it was very special.  It was a four panel work measuring a staggering 9 x 16 feet and, according to Miss Fears, was executed for the Dreams of Venus Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. 

Fears went on to explain that she was a former show girl who met Dali in 1939 when he was in New York for the opening of his show at the Julien Levy Gallery.  Dali became smitten with Fears and eventually gave her the painting as a gift.  Fears graciously held onto her gift throughout the years, but by 1980 she was in the process of relocating to California, and could not take such a large painting with her.  After some negotiation, a deal was struck making Yamet Arts the new owner of the “Dreams of Venus.”

 
Upon further research it was discovered that Dali was commissioned by an unnamed company to design and create the Dreams of Venus Pavilion at the World’s Fair.  Although he was guaranteed "complete imaginative freedom" for the project, Dali soon became aware that his creative license was being sabotaged. In spite of this artistic conflict, Dali managed to create a monumental installation that included scantily clad, often topless models dressed in outlandish costumes.  Some models (or "sirens" as Dali called them) were dressed as pianos or as lobsters surrounded by various sculptures, swimming pools and paintings.  The Pavilion was a smashing sensation at the World's Fair that year, and served to solidify Dali's standing as one of the world's leading surrealists.

In 1982, Yamet Arts agreed to loan the “Dreams of Venus” to a retrospective show of Dali’s work organized by the Yomiuri Shimbum and Isetan Museum of Art in Tokyo.  This exhibit, which lasted for 5 weeks, set attendance records in Japan for a single artist.

Queen's Museum hosted an exhibition "Salvador Dali: Dream of Venus" in 2003. The original pavilion was torn down after the Fair but this early multi-media art installation was well-documented and there are many photos in the exhibition catalog and in a book "Salvador Dalí’s Dream of Venus: The Surrealist Fun House From the 1939 World’s Fair" by Ingrid Schaffner.