D.C. museum to get Johns prints

The National Gallery of Art in Washington is to acquire about 1,700 proofs from Jasper Johns, which would make it the largest institutional repository of his works.

The purchase of Johns’ lithographs, etchings, relief prints and screen prints will be completed by the end of 2008. The gallery does not release exact dollar values on its purchases, but this was a multimillion-dollar acquisition, said gallery spokeswoman Deborah Ziska.