Rockwell Exhibition Leaving Medici Museum of Art
HOWLAND, Ohio – Sunday will be the final day to see the Boy Scouts of America art collection – which includes 65 Norman Rockwell paintings – at the Medici Museum of Art.
After the museum closes that day, the collection will be removed and later sold at auction to raise money to settle sex abuse lawsuits brought by former Scouts. The sale is part of the 2022 Boy Scouts bankruptcy plan, which was precipitated by the lawsuits.
The Medici will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
After the museum closes Sunday, the artwork will be removed from the galleries, and the walls will be prepared for the next exhibition.
The exhibition, which includes art from the 321-piece Boy Scouts of America collection, opened at the Medici in 2020. The iconic paintings by Rockwell, who is considered one of America’s greatest artists, depict humorous, patriotic and adventurous moments in the life of a Scout. Rockwell made the paintings between 1925 and 1976, and many were used for the annual Boy Scout calendar and other publications.
“The Medici was proud to display the BSA collection,” said Katelyn Amendolara-Russo, director of the museum. “We have had visitors come from all over the world to see this spectacular display of Norman Rockwell’s paintings, which is the second largest such collection in the world.”
The significance of the exhibition, she said, is that it showcases the entire career of the late Rockwell, from its start when he was just 19 years old until the end.
The exhibition has been “a wonderful tourist attraction,” Amendolara-Russo said, adding that it brought global recognition to the Medici.
“Many museums vied for this collection, and we were proud and humbled to be chosen to become the custodians of it,” she said. “I am sad to see it leave Warren but happy to know the proceeds of the sale of these artworks will go to compensate and provide justice to the victims of sex abuse.”
Ned Gold, a local attorney, board member of the Medici and lifelong advocate for Scouting, spearheaded the museum’s effort to acquire the collection.
The Rockwell paintings took up the museum’s largest and most prominent gallery.
The next exhibition in the space will be paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Calder and Toulouse-Lautrec from the collection of John A. Anderson, who is on the Medici’s board of directors.
The Boy Scouts art collection will be sold at auction to raise money for the lawsuit compensation fund. Heritage Auctions of Dallas will put the initial group of 25 paintings, including five Rockwells, on the block in November, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
The BSA filed for bankruptcy in 2020 as part of a settlement plan for the roughly 64,000 sexual abuse claims filed against it. A court-ordered compensation plan established a trust of roughly $2.4 billion consisting of cash and other assets, including the artwork, which is valued at $59 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Pictured at top: The main gallery of the Medici Museum of Art has been the temporary home of 65 original paintings by Norman Rockwell since 2020.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
