Boy Scouts Auction Norman Rockwell Paintings to Fund Sex-Abuse Survivor Compensation

The Boy Scouts of America is auctioning off the entirety of its 321-piece art collection, which includes works by Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney, and J.C. Leyendecker, and is valued at around $59 million, to fund compensation for sex-abuse survivors as part of a bankruptcy settlement, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Heritage Auctions will begin the sale in November with an initial group of 25 pieces, including five Rockwell paintings like Homecoming (1961) and To Keep Myself Physically Strong (1964) and Leyendecker’s Weapons for Liberty (1917). According to the Heritage Auctions website, many of the works have been on display at the Medici Museum of Art in Howland, Ohio under the title “The American Scouting Collection” since 2020.

The auction house, which is based in Dallas, Texas, will hold previews and lectures in art hubs across the United States, including Chicago and New York, leading up to the auction, Aviva Lehmann, Heritage’s senior vice president of American art, told the Journal.

The remaining collection will be auctioned over the next two years.

This sale is a small part of the $2.4 billion trust established for survivors of sexual abuse that was approved by a bankruptcy court in 2022. The settlement is funded primarily by insurance proceeds and contributions from local councils and affiliate groups. The trust also holds stakes in over 1,000 oil and gas properties valued at a total of $7.6 million, plus other assets. 

The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in 2020, the largest bankruptcy case tied to mass sexual abuse claims, with a total of 64,000 victims.

While the bankruptcy judge who approved the Boy Scouts’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan said that it was highly likely that sexual abuse victims would be paid in full, some victims’ lawyers claim that the settlement’s future faces challenges, especially following a Supreme Court ruling against drugmaker Purdue Pharma, which states that bankruptcy courts can’t force creditors to sign away their rights against third parties that aren’t in bankruptcy.

Barbara Houser, a former bankruptcy judge who is overseeing the distribution of settlement-trust funds told the Wall Street Journal that she hoped “people are interested in acquiring this art both for its intrinsic value and also because of who will benefit from the sale. Buyers should be proud of the fact that the proceeds from this sale will go to benefit survivors of childhood sexual abuse.”