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Maine News You May Have Missed

Abraham Lincoln is the Colby art museum’s million-dollar man, the Portland Museum of Art announces an $85 million expansion, and more.

Waterville

Philanthropists Peter and Paula Lunder acquired a statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Colby College Museum of Art for $1.15 million. The 40-inch-tall bronze was cast from sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s original model for an 1887 monument in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.

Bar Harbor

Firefighting crews from as far as Old Town, more than an hour away, responded to a massive blaze at the grand old Bluenose Inn. The hotel was closed for the season, and nobody was injured, but the fire significantly damaged the 1886 property.

Augusta

A Maine Department of Transportation hard hat was found some 3,300 miles away, in a tangle of seaweed on a beach in Trondheim, Norway. The man who recovered it contacted MDOT via Facebook, and officials told him to go ahead and keep it.

Islesford

Painter, puppet maker, and children’s-book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan passed away at age 98. A Harlem native and a Cranberry Isles resident since the 1980s, Bryan was renowned for his depictions of African and African-American cultures and of the natural world.

Portland

The Portland Museum of Art announced plans to grow the size of its campus more than twofold, by turning the former site of the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine into a six- or seven-story building with a rooftop sculpture garden, galleries, and classrooms.

Brunswick

When Wild Oats Bakery and Cafe cashier Sandy Arsenault, a fixture of the popular lunch spot for 13 years, faced unexpected and overwhelming medical bills, a community fundraiser brought in more than $30,000 to help her cover expenses.