The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, published twice annually, presents articles on the collections and history of the Art Institute. The objects discussed in this issue have been selected by James N. Wood, Director and President of the Art Institute, and are representative of the many important acquisitions made by the museum since 1980. One essay examines a superb pastel study by Eugene Delacroix for his painting The Death of Sardanapalus. Another essay explores the history of Strawberries, Nuts, &c., a masterpiece of still-life painting by the American artist Raphaelle Peale. Other essays discuss the remarkable Abduction of the Sabine Women by the seventeenth-century Italian artist Luca Giordana; a fine example of nineteenth-century French needlework; and a fascinating group of drawings by the architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe.