These Norman Rockwell sketches once hung in the White House. On Friday, they’re up for auction

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON AP The White House Historical Association is bidding to reclaim a series of sketches by American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell that once hung in the West Wing but ended up at auction after a family dispute over their ownership Related Articles Column Women grapple with profound loneliness in a trio of new TV shows The Running Man a dystopian satire sprinting at full speed Pope Leo XIV s favorite films The rock world was Cameron Crowe s oyster in memoir The Uncool Dear Abby Love my friend hate her secret affair The association could face specific stiff competition as the opening bid is million and auction house clients have been lining up with offers The four s-era sketches are titled So You Want to See the President and depict people from all walks of life hanging out in the White House lobby as they anticipate meeting President Franklin D Roosevelt They were put up for sale by a grandson of the White House official who received them as a gift from Rockwell after a court battle over their ownership was settled The sketches are set to be sold by a Dallas-based auction house Friday In keeping with its mission to help the White House collect and display artifacts that represent American history and values including the history of the White House the association hopes to prevail It wants to add the drawing to the vast White House collection of art furniture and other items They re so different from any of the other art that was exhibited in the West Wing noted Anita McBride who sits on the association s board of directors Arsenal of democracy McBride remembers seeing the drawings in when she went to work in Ronald Reagan s administration They were a focal point when staffers took visitors on tours she mentioned People just loved seeing the wide array and depiction of Americans that have access to their president The series created in and published in the Saturday Evening Post during World War II offers an intimate and deeply human portrayal of American democracy in action according to a description on the Heritage Auctions website The sketches show a variety of people journalists military officers and even a Miss America Pageant winner and her publicist waiting on plush-looking red chairs in the West Wing lobby as they waited to meet Roosevelt A Secret System agent stands watch in one of the scenes In a way it sort of illustrates how FDR perpetually talked about the arsenal of democracy and what made the United States unique mentioned Matthew Costello the association s chief teaching officer It s an incredible series of renderings The sketches are Rockwell s only known collection of four interrelated paintings that he conceived to tell a story the auction house announced Court settles family ownership dispute Rockwell gave the original drawings to Stephen Early who was Roosevelt s longtime press secretary seen in a drawing smoking a pipe as reporters huddle around him A family member turned them over to the White House in and they were on display throughout the West Wing for more than four decades sometimes in a hallway between the press offices that are mere actions from the Oval Office The family s ownership dispute began in when Thomas Early one of the press secretary s sons was watching a television interview with President Donald Trump and spied them on a wall in the White House according to court records William Elam III a grandson of Stephen Early s announced his mother received the drawings as a gift from her father the former press secretary before he died and that ownership had later passed to him The illustrations had gone to the White House in under an agreement which obligated the White House to return them to Elam upon request The White House gave back the drawings in A federal appeals court settled the dispute in May upholding a lower-court ruling in favor of Elam according to court records Stiff competition expected at auction Bidding will start at million and clients are ready and waiting to compete for this American icon Christina Rees director of communications for Heritage Auctions declared in an email The auction house has estimated the drawings will sell for between million and million That price tag could present a hurdle for the White House Historical Association which was created in by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy to help preserve the museum quality of the interior of the White House and educate the residents It is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that receives no establishment funding It raises money mostly through private donations and merchandise sales including an annual Christmas ornament The association did not reveal how much it is willing to spend but the the majority it has ever paid for a painting in the past was million for The Builders by African American artist Jacob Lawrence in McBride declared That work depicts hard-working men in orange red and brown tones and hangs in the White House Green Room McBride explained she expected stiff competition for Rockwell s work because of the broad interest in Americana as well as the artist s work But the association s mission is to go after art furniture and other items it believes belong in the White House We try hard to bring them back McBride announced