"Saying Grace" sets auction record

Norman Rockwell's Post cover "Saying Grace" sold at Sotheby's for a record $46 million, setting an all-time record for an American painting.* According to Time magazine, the previous record was held by a George Bellows painting called “Polo Crowd,” which sold  $27.7 million in 1999.

This is good news for American illustration, but a sad loss for the Norman Rockwell Museum, which was borrowing and displaying the painting while the estate of Rockwell's former art director decided what to do with it. Let's hope the new owner will allow it to remain on public display somewhere.

*Edit: Time Magazine's claim doesn't acknowledge the auction sale last May for $86 million of a painting by Latvian-born American citizen Mark Rothko.

Thanks, Tom Hart!