Norman Rockwell, Breaking Home Ties, 1954

“Though not known to have been missing, Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties, was discovered earlier this year in a secret hiding place behind a wall in the Vermont home of cartoonist Don Trachte who had bought the painting from Rockwell in 1960.  A replica, made by Mr. Trachte himself presumably to protect his children’s inheritance while he was in the process of divorcing his wife, has been exhibited and widely assumed to be the original since the 1970s.  The painting appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on September 25th, 1954.  It powerfully captures the generation gap between the Depression-era rancher and his wide-eyed college-bound son in an unforgettable image expressing the social and cultural growing pains of post-World War II America.  The pre-sale estimate is $4 / 6 million.”