Deck the Halls with a Real Rockwell

'Tis the season...not only for typical holiday shopping, but for auctions as well (the auction season kicked off earlier this month when a Matisse sold for over $33M). So what's the ultimate gift this year? If you missed out on the $18.5M Faberge egg, how about the Norman Rockwell painting of Santa Claus?

The painting, titled Extra Good Boys and Girls, is expected to take in between $2.5 and $3.5 million, according to Christie's New York, who told the NY Post, "This is our high-end Christmas present for this season."

The oil-on-canvas piece, used for a December 1939 Saturday Evening Post magazine cover, is part of an auction featuring more than 215 lots of American works of art.

Christie's believes that it has gathered the most valuable selection of American art for one auction and estimates that the final tally could hit more than $60 million.

The auction, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, is tomorrow at Christie's...but you would have to know someone who's been really good this year to drop that sort of change.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on November 28, 2007 4:40 PM

Comments [rss]

books

freddy - ha - I like Rockwell, its gives people what they want and need - fantasy...for the people who critize it strongly, your loss

freddyhere

Yes, B.S., our society these days is bombarded daily with images of Norman Rockwell - it's getting out of control...

Bouncing Soul

Rockwell’s paintings create a false sense of family and portray the unattainable American Dream. If we could stop cramming images like these down people’s throats maybe more people would be less disappointed in the out come of their life and appreciate what they have more.

smitty

Santa's wearing knee-high red Uggs.

virgil

I've always liked Rockwell. My family has an original charcoal sketch for one of his SEP covers, inscribed to my father when he was a child. It's a prized possession (and no, it's not worth a fraction of what they're estimating for that oil painting...he made, gave away, and threw out hundreds of sketches for those covers).