Tragic proceedings - BSA looking to sell precious Norman Rockwell collection

[The Latin Scot]

This may be one of the most heart-breaking blows to the collective history of the Boy Scouts of America that I can imagine ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/02/27/boy-scouts-chapter-11-bankruptcy-rockwell-paintings-sexual-abuse-victims/4820331002/

To lose this collection is, in my eyes, worse than losing any campground or property or lands. Absolutely catastrophic news.

[GiraffeCamp]

Are they available for viewing somewhere right now?

[qwazse]

17 hours ago, GiraffeCamp said:

Are they available for viewing somewhere right now?

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/12/18/you-can-see-all-65-norman-rockwell-scouting-paintings-at-this-museum-in-ohio/

[GiraffeCamp]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/12/18/you-can-see-all-65-norman-rockwell-scouting-paintings-at-this-museum-in-ohio/

Thank you! Looks like I need to plan a road trip to Howland, Ohio before they're sold!

Edited March 14, 2021 by GiraffeCamp

[fred8033]

Poor timing to sell iconic works of an American Master  ... meaning ...  bankruptcy and sexual abuse charges will suppress value.

[RememberSchiff]

@The Latin Scot   perhaps Steven Spielberg and George Lucas would be interested. Both have exhibited their respective Rockwell collections.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128360139

https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/rockwell

In video below, check out commentary of above Spirit of America at 14:56. Spielberg comes in at 15:46 to 16:40. There is another scout segment at 30:00 to 30:51.

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by RememberSchiff

[mashmaster]

I would prefer it would go to the Getty museum.  They can really display it well.  A private party won't have them available for people to see.

[scoutldr]

I would prefer the Norman Rockwell Museum at his home in Stockbridge, Mass.  We went there over Christmas two years ago...beautiful town.  The highlights of my trip were the museum and the original "Alice's Restaurant", now the Guthrie Center.

[mashmaster]

3 hours ago, scoutldr said:

I would prefer the Norman Rockwell Museum at his home in Stockbridge, Mass.  We went there over Christmas two years ago...beautiful town.  The highlights of my trip were the museum and the original "Alice's Restaurant", now the Guthrie Center.

That would be nice as well.  The reason I mentioned the Getty, is that their museum is free.  It is huge, they have a really nice facility and are in a major metroplex so it could be seen by so many people.

[Eagle1993]

I certainly hope they remain on public display.  It seems like rich people like to have at least some of their collections circulate in public museums.  Note that the bankruptcy settlement gives ownership of the art to the settlement trust not the money from the sale.  They can decide when and how to sell the collection.

[David CO]

Until the bankruptcy, I've never given a thought to these paintings.  Never made any effort to see them.  If I've gone this long without seeing them, while they were on public display, I see no reason to be concerned about them now.  

[Eagledad]

15 minutes ago, David CO said:

Until the bankruptcy, I've never given a thought to these paintings.  Never made any effort to see them.  If I've gone this long without seeing them, while they were on public display, I see no reason to be concerned about them now.  

God blessed us by creating us all differently.

Barry

[The Latin Scot]

On 4/14/2021 at 8:01 AM, David CO said:

Until the bankruptcy, I've never given a thought to these paintings.  Never made any effort to see them.  If I've gone this long without seeing them, while they were on public display, I see no reason to be concerned about them now.  

And thus it is in life; about those things of which we know nothing, we seem to care but little; we never feel the lack of that with which we have never been filled, and thus we never know the magnitude to which our souls might have been expanded, nor the heights to which our joys might have reached.

I have been privileged to see two magnificent Rockwell exhibits in my life. Both deeply and thoroughly changed me.

One was back in 2013 at the Church History museum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City while I was living up in Utah. The display was in celebration of the Church's hundred-year collaboration with the Boy Scouts of America, and featured nearly all of the paintings owned by the BSA loaned to the Church for the occasion. It was profoundly moving; I wasn't a Scouting leader then, but I was after all an Eagle Scout, and his paintings inspired me in such a way that I felt I had been spiritually prepared to take on the role of Scout leader when the call came not-quite two years later. There is a powerful, humane dignity to his art that reflects the nobility and heritage of what we are and what we do in Scouting; his paintings capture the best in us, and when I became a leader, I wanted to be the kind of person depicted in his paintings - full of mirth and excitement and fun, but also dignity and reverence and humanity.

A few years later at Brigham Young University (my alma mater), there was a tremendous exhibit of his works borrowed from the Stockbridge museum that included, among other works, the entirety of Rockwell's paintings for the Saturday Evening Post (323 covers!), his series of civil rights movement paintings, and various Scouting works. Again, a breathtaking exhibit that had me alternating between fits of delighted laughter and moments of profound reflection and tear-filled grief. It was, like the exhibit I saw before it, a life-altering experience. I think Rockwell's paintings stand as one of the greatest testaments of what Scouting has meant to this nation for over a hundred years, and they are, I would say, one of the organization's greatest treasures, worth as much as any property, campground, or financial asset, and with a value infinitely beyond that of their mere monetary worth.

I know my Scouting service has been hugely influenced by Rockwell's works. They have inspired me to be a better leader, a nobler person, a kinder servant, and a more faithful believer. I think that, for those with open hearts, they can be some of the greatest motivators Scouting can possibly offer. 

[David CO]

24 minutes ago, The Latin Scot said:

I have been privileged to see two magnificent Rockwell exhibits in my life.

I saw the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn Rockwell collection at the Mark Twain museum in Hannibal MO with my scouts.  If you go there, make sure to pick a sunny day.  The museum includes several small buildings, and I got soaked going from one to another.  The boys did the cave, outside of town, but I had to pass.  It requires a lot of bending and ducking.  My old body can't handle it anymore.  We all found the riverboat excursion very relaxing after a hard day's sightseeing.

 

[David CO]

49 minutes ago, The Latin Scot said:

And thus it is in life; about those things of which we know nothing, we seem to care but little; we never feel the lack of that with which we have never been filled, and thus we never know the magnitude to which our souls might have been expanded, nor the heights to which our joys might have reached.

Very true.  I am color blind.  Probably missed out on a lot things that other people enjoy.