“Bathers with a Turtle” is one of 76 works that Joseph and his first wife, Louise Pulitzer, donated to the museum from 1947 to 1967.

A story of his passion for art recalls the fierce determination to buy a certain Picasso. He told friends he called home in St. Louis saying, “Get the money. Sell ​​everything except the newspaper. In 1967 he made his first six-figure purchase, paying $ 315,500 for this Picasso, “Portrait of Wilhelm Uhde”, writes Marjorie B. Cohn in “Classic Modern: The Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer Jr”.

Rauh met Joseph Pulitzer at Harvard, and she then socialized with him and Louise Pulitzer, occasionally house-sitting for the couple, after moving to St. Louis. Louise Pulitzer died in 1968, and Rauh and Joseph Pulitzer married five years later.

Emily Pulitzer said that after their wedding, the couple decided to buy some artwork together.

“We had really pretty similar tastes,” she said. “We didn’t buy anything unless we both liked it.” Although, she admits, “sometimes he liked her more.”

She said her husband took a long time to accept Pop Art, but notes “that he bought contemporary art from four different generations. Most people cannot make this move.

“As culture changes and ideas change, it’s hard for people to keep up. And I speak now as a curator and not as a wife.