Harvard Art Museum Lands Major Gift

The Harvard Art Museum received $45 million and 31 pieces of modern and contemporary art from long-standing arts patron Emily Rauh Pulitzer, a former curator at the Museum, University officials announced Friday.

The 31 works—worth nearly $200 million, according to the New York Times—include works by Pablo Picasso, sculptor Constantin Brâncusi, surrealist painter Joan Miró and 22 other artists, and together with the $45 million, mark the largest gift in the Museum’s history.

The donation comes at a time of change for the arts at Harvard as its flagship art museum undergoes major renovations and University President Drew G. Faust has put public emphasis on enhancing the arts on campus.

“The Harvard Art Museum’s new project will expand the ways that art advances education even further and I am very proud to support the museum as it moves forward,” Pulitzer said in a statement, referencing the renovations.

Pulitzer’s late husband Joseph Pulitzer Jr ’36, was the grandson of the famous newspaper publisher,

The donation is the second major gift to the arts at Harvard since Faust was installed as university president last year, when she immediately made rejuvenating the arts at Harvard one of the public priorities of her tenure.

Last spring, David Rockefeller ’36 committed $30 million to fund renovations to the Fogg Art Museum and provide support for implementing the recommendations of the Arts task force Faust convened last fall.

“I think [the gift] underlines the importance of the arts at Harvard,” Faust said in an interview Friday. “It’s an area where students have a vibrant interest and we’ll now be able to serve them better.”

Pulitzer and her husband have long been avid supporters of the University’s artistic endeavors. Emily Pulitzer served as assistant curator of drawings at the University from 1957 to 1964 and now sits on its Board of Overseers.

In addition to Friday’s gift, the Pulitzer family has given Harvard 43 modern and contemporary works in the last 60 years and has provided funds to purchase 92 more, including pieces by painters Piet Mondrian and Georges Braque.

Pulitzer’s donation aims to improve both the quality of the collection and access to its works.

The 31 pieces—all but three from the 20th century—strengthen the Museum’s holdings in contemporary and modern art, said Thomas W. Lentz, director of the Museum.

The works include two sculptures by Brancusi, Picasso’s 1918 “Harlequin Playing the Guitar,” and Mirò’s 1945 “Woman in the Night.” The donation also contains pieces by contemporary American sculptors Richard Serra and Joel Shapiro, giving viewers the opportunity to see the work of living artists.

“I think it is a fabulous gift, and a hugely important one,” History of Art and Architecture Professor Ewa Lajer-Burcharth said in an email. “The works are of unparalleled quality, a breakthrough for the museum.”

The monetary portion of the gift will help fund the renovation of the Fogg, which will have new exhibition galleries and study rooms aimed at enhancing access to the collection for students and non-affiliates.

“In terms of classes it’s such a great resource to have amazing and famous works of art in our own museum,” said Alissa E. Schapiro ’10, a History of Art and Architecture concentrator and a member of the Harvard Art Museum Undergraduate Connection. “To go into a museum and sit in front of a work of art, there’s no experience like that.”

—Staff writer Ama Francis can be reached at afrancis@fas.harvard.edu.