White House Historical Association reclaims Rockwell sketches for $5.8 million at auction

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Historical Association has reclaimed a series of sketches by American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell with a whopping winning bid of $5.8 million at auction on Friday.

The four 1940s-era sketches titled “So You Want to See the President!” were displayed in the West Wing for years, but were removed in 2022 after a family dispute over who owned them.

The sketches show a variety of people — journalists, military officers and even a Miss America Pageant winner and her publicist — seated on plush-looking red chairs as they waited to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They were put up for sale by a grandson of the White House official who had received them as a gift from Rockwell.

“I can’t tell you how personally thrilled I am that the White House Historical Association preserved this piece of White House history,” said Anita McBride, who sits on the association’s board of directors.

The price tag is by far the most ever paid by the association, which holds a vast collection of art, furniture and other items as part of its mission to help the White House collect and display artifacts that represent American history and culture.

Before Friday, the most the association had paid for an artifact was $1.5 million for “The Builders,” by African American artist Jacob Lawrence, in 2007, McBride said. That work depicts hard-working men in orange, red and brown tones, and hangs in the White House Green Room.

The sketches sold Friday are Rockwell’s only known collection of four interrelated paintings that he conceived to tell a story, according to Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house that sold them. The series was created in 1943 and published in the Saturday Evening Post.

The association will share more “about the future of this significant and historic work,” its president, Stewart McLaurin, said in a statement.

“We look forward to utilizing this acquisition to teach White House history for generations to come,” he said.

Matthew Costello, the association’s chief education officer, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview this week that officials had discussed putting the sketches on display at The People’s House: A White House Experience. The association opened the interactive White House education center in September 2024.

The White House Historical Association was created in 1961 by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to help preserve the museum quality of the interior of the White House and educate the public. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that receives no government funding.