Getty Acquires Rarely Seen Gauguin

LOS ANGELES—The J. Paul Getty Museum announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Arii Matamoe, an 1892 painting by Paul Gauguin that has been exhibited publicly only once since 1946, reports the New York Times.

The work, whose title translates to "The Royal End," depicts the severed head of a Polynesian man on a platter and a nude woman crouching nearby in mourning. Scott Schaefer, the Getty's senior curator of paintings, says it does not represent actual Tahitian rites and was likely created "to shock the Parisians" when it was exhibited in 1893.

The Getty would not say how much it paid for the work, which has been in a private collection for decades and has had only three or four owners. It will undergo minor restoration and cleaning and will probably go on display next month.