LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (AP) - The J. Paul Getty Museum said March 11 it has acquired a painting by Paul Gauguin that has been publicly displayed only once since 1946.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (AP) â The J. Paul Getty Museum said March 11 it has acquired a painting by Paul Gauguin that has been publicly displayed only once since 1946.
âArii Matamoe (The Royal End)â was created in 1892 during Gauguinâs first extended stay in Tahiti. The painting shows the severed head of a Polynesian man resting on a cushion with a mourning nude woman sitting nearby.
Museum officials would not say how much was paid for the painting or who the seller was. Another Gauguin painting titled âTe Poipoi (The Morning)â sold at a Sothebyâs auction in November for nearly $40 million.
âThe acquisition of this painting marks one of the key moments in the history of our collection,â said museum director Michael Brand.
The Getty has three other Gauguin paintings in its collections, including âEve (The Nightmare),â âHead with Hornsâ and âPortrait of a Tahitian Girl.â
Observers said âArii Matamoeâ may have been loosely inspired by the death of King Pomare V, which occurred shortly after Gauguin came to Tahiti in 1891.
Museum officials said the painting has only been shown once to the public since 1946 as part of a Gauguin exhibition in Martigny, Switzerland, in 1998.
The museum hopes to have the painting on display by next month.