A Norman Rockwell polyptych that hung in the White House for decades may return to the West Wing — at a price tag of $7.2 million.
Commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt’s press secretary, Stephen Early, So You Want to See The President! depicts politicians, journalists, servicemen, and myriad other petitioners kibitzing outside the Oval Office. Quietly removed from the White House in 2022 during a bitter ownership dispute among Early’s descendants, the paintings were “part of Early’s larger strategy to humanize executive power,” but have since become an “emblem of both American democracy and litigiousness,” Artnet News wrote.
Following its purchase by The White House Historical Association, however, President! may once again spectate from the walls of the people’s house.