Still Causing Trouble

Willie Gillis may strike you as a nice, sweet boy.  But he has a history of causing trouble.

Oops!  Seventy years on, and Willie Gillis is still causing problems.  Although, to be fair, this time around Willie himself can't be blamed.



His creator donated a painting to a school in Gardner, MA, quite a few years ago.  The city has now sold the picture for nearly $2 million.  That's pretty low for a Rockwell, but the picture in question was never published.

So far, so good.  The trouble is that city officials can't come to perfect agreement about how the money should be used.  They're all on board with putting the money into an endowment and spending 90% of the yearly proceeds on the school.  But they haven't decided whether the money should go specifically to the arts, or whether it should be used for general educational purposes.

Either way, it was standard Rockwell generosity to have simply given the painting away.