Just weeks away from its grand reopening, the Harvard Art Museum's gift of 31 major works of modern and contemporary art and $45 million from Harvard alumna Emily Rauh Pulitzer is now in the spotlight. Pulitzer, a former Harvard Art Museum curator, longtime supporter and friend of the museum and of Harvard, and wife of the late Joseph Pulitzer Jr., made the donation in 2008. The museum has been closed for six years for a Renzo Piano-designed expnasion and renovation.

The gifted modern works include important paintings and sculptures by Brancusi, Derain, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Miró, Modigliani, Picasso, Rosso, and Vuillard. The contemporary art includes major works by di Suvero, Heizer, Judd, Lichtenstein, Nauman, Newman, Oldenburg, Serra, Shapiro, Tuttle, and more. This gift represents one of the most significant donations of works of art ever received by the museum. The financial gift is the single largest donation in the history of the Harvard Art Museum.

The Art Museum concurrently announced previous gifts of 43 other modern and contemporary works (both outright and partial gifts) from Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer Jr., and Mr. Pulitzer and his first wife, Louise (who died in 1968). These gifts were made between 1953 and 2005 and were never formally announced as donations to the Art Museum, and included paintings by Braque, Cézanne, Miró, Monet, Picasso, and Stella, and works on paper by Cézanne, Degas, and Delaunay. In addition, the Pulitzers have provided financial support over the years that helped the Art Museum to purchase 92 works of art, including paintings by Baselitz, Braque, and Mondrian, works on paper by Ellsworth Kelly, LeWitt, Marden, Serra, David Smith, and Twombly, and an important collection of Indian paintings on paper.

The Pulitzers’ sustained history of donations to build the collection at the Harvard Art Museum and their wide-ranging support of the institution have played a significant role in enhancing the University’s commitment to the study and appreciation of the visual arts.

The Art Museum, working with architect Renzo Piano, has undertaken on an extensive renovation and expansion of its historic facilities at 32 Quincy St. in Cambridge, which reopens on Nov. 16. The new design will allow a far more effective presentation of the collections and exhibitions of the three museums that compose the Harvard Art Museum—the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum—in new exhibition galleries and study centers and will greatly enhance the museum’s research and education facilities.