WASHINGTON — White House Historical Association has restored a series of sketches American artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell, who spent a whopping $7.25 million at auction on Friday.
Four 1940s-era sketches entitled “So You Want to See the President!” For years on display in the West Wing, they were removed in 2022 after a family dispute over who owned them.
The sketches depict a variety of people—journalists, military personnel and even the Miss America pageant winner and her publicist—sitting on plush red chairs awaiting a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They were put up for sale by the grandson of a White House official, who received them as a gift from Rockwell.
“I can’t tell you how personally thrilled I am that the White House Historical Association has preserved this piece of White House history,” said Anita McBride, a member of the association’s board of directors.
The White House Historical Association's winning bid was $5.8 million. The total cost of returning the artwork, including the buyer's premium paid to the auction house, was $7.25 million.
The price to date is the highest ever paid by the association, which maintains a vast collection of art, furniture and other items as part of its mission to help the White House collect and display artifacts representing American history and culture.
Before Friday, the most the association had paid for an artifact was $1.5 million for “Builders” by African-American artist Jacob Lawrence in 2007, McBride said. This work depicts hardworking men in orange, red and brown colors and hangs in the Green Room of the White House.
The sketches sold Friday are Rockwell's only known collection of four interrelated paintings that he intended to tell a story, according to Heritage Auctions, the Dallas auction house that sold them. The series was created in 1943 and published in the Saturday Evening Post.
The association will say more “about the future of this important and historic work,” its president, Stuart McLaurin, said in a statement.
“We look forward to using this acquisition to teach the history of the White House to future generations,” he said.
Matthew Costello, the association's director of education, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview this week that officials were discussing a sketch exhibit at the People's House: The White House Experience. In September 2024, the association opened the White House Interactive Education Center.
The White House Historical Association was created in 1961 by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to help preserve the museum quality of the White House interior and educate the public. It is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that receives no government funding.
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This article has been updated to clarify that the total value of the art's return was $7.25 million, reflecting the winning bid of $5.8 million and the buyer's premium paid to the auction house.
