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'Hidden' Rockwell sold for £7.9m[$15.4M]
BBC ^ | 01 Dec 2006 | BBC

Posted on 12/01/2006 7:58:54 AM PST by FLOutdoorsman

The original of a Norman Rockwell painting found behind a fake wall has fetched a record $15.4m (£7.9m).

Breaking Home Ties by the US artist was first sold to cartoonist Donald Trachte in 1960 for $900 when the two were neighbours in Vermont.

But Mr Trachte made a replica of the painting and hid the genuine piece in a cavity in his studio.

The original was discovered by Mr Trachte's sons after he died last year and sold at Sotheby's in New York.

In April, David and Donald Trachte Jnr noticed a strange gap in the wall of a room in their late father's house.

Secret switch

They gave it a shove and the wall slid open to reveal the real Rockwell along with other paintings.

Mr Trachte apparently kept the switch a secret, and his sons believe he made the copy to prevent his wife - whom he divorced in the early 1970s - from claiming the 1954 work.

"I think he just wanted to tuck these in the wall for his kids," Donald Trachte Jnr said at the time of the discovery.

Experts and Mr Trachte's family were confused by apparent inconsistencies between a version of the painting which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1954, and the canvas they assumed was the original.

Poor preservation and sloppy restoration work were blamed until the discovery of the real painting solved the mystery.

Rockwell's paintings are popular in the US. The most paid for a piece before Thursday's auction was $9.2m (£4.7m) - in May this year.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: normanrockwell; painting; rockwell
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To: FLOutdoorsman
Rockwell's paintings are popular in the US.

The Beeb can't even do a straight story without working in a sneer? Yes, they're popular in the U.S. because they're damn good. IMHO.

21 posted on 12/01/2006 10:06:15 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Unmarked Package

Thanks for posting a picture of the "Breaking Home Ties" painting. We sent our oldest son off to college a few months back. Except for the clothing the young man in the picture is wearing and the Dad smoking a cigarette (I quit 5 years ago), that could be my son and me! Our dog would rest his head on my son's lap too! It was hard sending our son off, we really miss him, but that's what a parent's job is, to raise them up well and send them off into the world.


22 posted on 12/01/2006 10:16:41 AM PST by rochester_veteran (born and raised in rachacha!)
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To: Billthedrill

Wow...I think you have to be looking for bias to see that statement as being a jab at America. He was just stating a fact.


23 posted on 12/01/2006 10:19:05 AM PST by Hildy (RUDY GUILIANI FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008)
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To: YankeeGirl

An illustrator uses the medium to convey a point or idea. A painter changes the color of a wall, and often the carpet it joins.


24 posted on 12/01/2006 10:28:48 AM PST by Sensei Ern (http://www.myspace.com/reconcomedy - For a good time visit www.laurelbaptisttemple.org)
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To: Unmarked Package

I have a digital imaged Rockwell I altered for my wife, as an anniversity present. It is a picture of a couple at the clerk of court getting their marriage license. I altered the dat on the calendar to say 11/1, which is our anniversary. We got married at the clerk because of our families rejecting our getting married. That was OK, though. It meant we could spend the money we would have on a reception, on our honeymoon. The couple in the piture looked enough like my wife and I that it was eeire. My wife even had a similar yellow dress on.

I wish I could find the original, as I would love to have it (I would not alter the date on the original).


25 posted on 12/01/2006 10:34:48 AM PST by Sensei Ern (http://www.myspace.com/reconcomedy - For a good time visit www.laurelbaptisttemple.org)
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To: WIladyconservative
Nobody I know uses the word "fetched" any more - except when referring to the actions of a dog.

Beware of blind dates described as having a fetching personality.

26 posted on 12/01/2006 10:38:12 AM PST by N. Theknow ((Kennedys - Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat - But they know what's best.))
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To: FLOutdoorsman

Rockwell was the BEST.


27 posted on 12/01/2006 10:40:54 AM PST by Hammerhead
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To: Hildy

I could be wrong, of course, but I do hear a snide comment in that as if to imply that Rockewll is a second-rate artist popular only in his native country. Maybe I've had too much coffee.


28 posted on 12/01/2006 10:43:57 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: moonman
The elephant shit "artists" have no talent, except for being political hacks aspiring to guru status in the art world, and will put down any genuine talent such as Rockwell. There is more talent in Rockwell's little finger than the lot of them combined. These hacks would strangle true genius in a mud puddle for fear of bowing to it. The "art" world is a pot of serpents licking each others boots and good artists such as Rockwell will have nothing to do with any of that.
29 posted on 12/01/2006 10:59:23 AM PST by Blind Eye Jones
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To: Sensei Ern
An illustrator uses the medium to convey a point or idea. A painter changes the color of a wall, and often the carpet it joins.

LOL! Add his own hair, clothes, etc.

30 posted on 12/01/2006 11:04:33 AM PST by YankeeGirl
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To: Alouette

You can "feel" their pain.
The one on the right is preying? That would mean they still have a shot :)

Thank you for sharing, If I could figure out how to enclose an image I would send you a sample Illustration by JM.


31 posted on 12/01/2006 11:21:02 AM PST by TET1968 (SI MINOR PLUS EST ERGO NIHIL SUNT OMNIA)
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To: rochester_veteran
"It was hard sending our son off, we really miss him, but that's what a parent's job is, to raise them up well and send them off into the world."

I know exactly what you mean. The final parting I made from my parent’s home after graduating from college to move far away was very difficult. My Mom was sobbing openly and my Dad and I were teary eyed but trying to remain brave. Several days later, my parents wrote me and told me it was one of the saddest days of their lives.

Many years later, near the end of my Dad’s life, I had the pleasure of making audio recordings of his narration of important events in his life and we revisited that day I left home. I was surprised and elated to discover he remembered the day not with sadness, but with great joy and pride. My life had been filled with blessings and excitement that I shared with him throughout. He remembered the day of our parting only as the joyful beginning of my adventure.

I hope that God grants a similar happy remembrance of this difficult time of parting to you and your son.

32 posted on 12/01/2006 11:22:43 AM PST by Unmarked Package
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To: sinanju
Okay, so it ain't the Missing Carravaggio

I like Caravaggio but I didn't even know there was a missing one. Thanks.

33 posted on 12/01/2006 11:35:42 AM PST by wideminded
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To: Unmarked Package; All
Rockwell took his title and his theme from a famous painting by a 19th century Irish-American artist, Thomas Hovenden.

Hovenden's "Breaking Home Ties" was the most popular painting at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

The Rockwell painting is less of a set-piece, more concentrated, more of a "close up". But both "tell the story" (and the dogs are amazingly alike.)

34 posted on 12/01/2006 11:54:08 AM PST by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Unmarked Package

That is one of my favorite Rockwells. Thank you for posting the picture.


35 posted on 12/01/2006 11:56:50 AM PST by Miss Marple (Lord, thank you for Mozart Lover's son's safe return, and look after Jemian's son, please!)
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To: RepoGirl
It isn't really fair to judge Rockwell from his Saturday Evening Post covers or the advertisements he illustrated.

When you're working for a client you have to give them what they want. . . . and what the Post wanted was a certain amount of schmaltz.

A Rockwell exhibition toured Atlanta a number of years ago, and I've always liked the American realist painters, so off we went. It was a revelation! His easel paintings are brilliant - and seeing even the Post covers in the original oils is a different story. Rockwell had an excellent grasp of color, composition, and the technical details of painting. He also could pastiche the style of almost any period with ease.


Michaelangelo- the prophet Isaiah.


The Dutch Masters


. . . he even got in a shot at Pollock.

Just an illustrator. Right.

36 posted on 12/01/2006 12:04:17 PM PST by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: N. Theknow; WIladyconservative

But then my wife loves it when I say her outfit is "fetchin'". A great word for that age-old dilemma.


37 posted on 12/01/2006 12:04:26 PM PST by GopherIt
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To: FLOutdoorsman

But I thought Rockwell wasn't a real "arteest"?


38 posted on 12/01/2006 12:05:09 PM PST by Antoninus (When your party's platform is "Vote for US because THEY will be worse," prepare to lose.)
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To: Unmarked Package
I hope that God grants a similar happy remembrance of this difficult time of parting to you and your son.

Thanks for sharing your final parting story. God Bless you!

39 posted on 12/01/2006 12:11:22 PM PST by rochester_veteran (born and raised in rachacha!)
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To: AnAmericanMother; hellinahandcart; Republicanprofessor; MozarkDawg
Thanks for the reminder of what’s best at this site.

Michelangelo: The Prophet Isaiah

40 posted on 12/01/2006 12:17:32 PM PST by dighton
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