Throughout the late 1970s and ’80s, Norton Simon continued to acquire important works of art for the Museum. Several of the works he purchased––now considered highlights of the collections––made headlines for appearing on the market unexpectedly or for breaking auction records. He expanded the collection further with considerable acquisitions of prints by Rembrandt, Goya and Picasso, which were organized into floor-to-ceiling displays across the galleries. Over the years, curators developed these installations into a robust, thematic, cross-collections exhibition program, now situated in the lower-level galleries.

1977
Norton Simon purchases the nearly complete set of Degas’s bronze modèles for $1.8 million. After being exhibited at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, where they are the subject of an important symposium, the majority of the sculptures are installed in the Museum in May 1978.

1980
Norton Simon acquires Dieric Bouts’s Resurrection (c. 1455) at auction for $3.7 million––the highest price he ever pays for a work of art.

1980
Hollywood icon Cary Grant, a Museum Trustee and friend of Norton and Jennifer Jones Simon, donates Diego Rivera’s The Flower Vendor (Girl with Lilies) (1941).

1981
Norton Simon and the J. Paul Getty Museum jointly acquire Nicolas Poussin’s The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist and St. Elizabeth (1650–51) at a Christie’s auction.

1982
The Museum installs Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker (1880) on a plinth facing Colorado Boulevard. 

1983
Joining forces again, Norton Simon and the J. Paul Getty Museum acquire Edgar Degas’s Waiting (c. 1879–82) for $3.74 million, setting a record price for an Impressionist work at auction.

1984
Norton Simon acquires Pablo Picasso’s Woman with Mandolin (1925) at auction. The painting is installed at the Museum in a display of over 165 works by the Spanish artist.

1989
Norton Simon acquires Gustave Courbet’s Peasant Girl with a Scarf (c. 1849), the final purchase of his remarkable career as an art collector.

1993
On June 2, Simon dies at age 86. Following his passing, the Museum ceases to purchase works of art, devoting itself to the preservation, research and display of its collections.