Also on display following a recent acquisition -- obtained just three days before the new wing opened in January -- is a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a reduction of the one that stands in Lincoln Park in Chicago.

CNN: NY Met revamp highlights American history in art

Reopened two years ago after an extensive renovation, the court contains marble and bronze figurative works by 19th and 20th Century American sculptors like Hiram Powers, Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Paul Manship.

BBC: Celebrating movement amid sculpture

Beauty in its traditional sense is profoundly important to him some of his favorite artworks include the Annunciation altarpiece by the early Renaissance master Simone Martini (created for the Siena Cathedral, but now in Florence's Uffizi Gallery), the paintings of the English Pre-Raphaelites, and the sculpture of Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

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