The Indianapolis Museum of Art has made the most expensive and artistically significant purchase in its history, a $30 million acquisition that includes three paintings by French artist Paul Gauguin.
The collection of 101 paintings and prints also includes 14 works by Gauguin's followers in the Pont-Aven school, an influential movement in modern art. The purchase gives the museum one of the most comprehensive Pont-Aven collections in the country.Swiss entrepreneur Samuel Josefowitz spent 40 years amassing the collection. The museum purchased it with $10 million of its own money and a $20 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, the charitable fund started by the Indianapolis-based drug company Eli Lilly and Co.
The collection is scheduled to be displayed in an exhibition in March.