National Gallery added 400 new works in 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Artworks that range in theme from religion to sports were among more than 400 new pieces recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art, the gallery announced in a year-end roundup.
One was a marble carving, "The Young John the Baptist," once attributed to Michelangelo but more recently said to be the work of the much less famous Giovanni Francesco Susini, who worked in Italy in the 1600s, the following century.
There's also a catcher's mitt, 31/2 feet high, by the contemporary American Claes Oldenburg.
Oldenburg, 76, has specialized in sculpting gigantic versions of everyday objects, such as a lipstick and a hamburger.
All the new pieces were contributed by private individuals or paid for by them.
Another new item, dating from the 1400s, is one of Europe's oldest engravings by an artist known only as the "Master of St. John the Baptist."
Most of the newly acquired pieces are by American artists, including 141 watercolors and drawings by John Marin.
Also included is a series of eight "Color Panels for a Large Wall," each a blank in a single color, by Ellsworth Kelly.
The series has been hanging in the atrium of the gallery's modernist East Building, on loan since 2003.
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