CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum has 82 more works to add to

Walter Sickert, "Self Portrait,"  c. 1920s, oil on canvas.

its collection, thanks to a promised gift by crime writer Patricia Cornwell. While researching her 2002 novel Portrait of a Killer, Cornwell paid a reported $6.34 million for a collection of paintings, drawings and prints by German-born artist Walter Sickert. In her novel, the author proposes that Sickert was Jack the Ripper, responsible for the brutal murders of five London prostitutes in 1888. She bases her claim on details within his paintings.

In 2003, the museum’s Straus Center for Conservation performed various DNA tests to determine any connection between the two men—but the results were inconclusive. As of now, only one painting, “Thérèse Lessore,” is on display, and the museum has no plans for a special exhibition or further scientific study of the works. “Research on the paintings has been concluded, but it is possible that the pieces will be rotated out or loaned to other museums,” says museum spokesperson Daron Manoogian.