Rockwell Leads American Art at Sotheby’s, Berkshire Museum Holds Back Some Lots

Sotheby’s released the catalogue for its American art sale, featuring the Norman Rockwell painting Shuffleton’s Barbershop with a $20m estimate.

The Rockwell comes from the Berkshire Museum’s deaccessioning plan but at least seven of the 36 works to be offered by the museum were held back from the catalogue. None of the lots that were withheld match the Rockwell in value.

According to Sotheby’s, “the Museum has decided to sequence the sale of the de-accessioned works differently and nineteen works will be offered between this November and March 2018.”

For those keeping count: 40 works were deaccessioned, 36 were scheduled for sale and Sotheby’s is going ahead with 19.

What will happen to the other works?  Sotheby’s will only say that, “pLans for the balance of the works that were deaccessioned by the Berkshire Museum will be shared in due course.”