Trove of Army’s art awaits a new museum: Four Rockwells top a list of 16,000 pieces

Valuable Rockwell Works Wait In Military Conservation Center
Andrew Garrison, 11, of Salt Lake City, looks over the Rockwell exhibition at the Church History Museum Monday, July 22, 2013, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty-three original, Boy Scout-themed Norman Rockwell paintings are on display in Salt Lake City to celebrate the 100-year relationship between Scouting and the Mormon church. The Rockwell exhibition that opened over the weekend at the Church History Museum will run through year's end. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Andrew Garrison, 11, of Salt Lake City, looks over the Rockwell exhibition at the Church History Museum Monday, July 22, 2013, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty-three original, Boy Scout-themed Norman Rockwell paintings are on display in Salt Lake City to celebrate the 100-year relationship between Scouting and the Mormon church. The Rockwell exhibition that opened over the weekend at the Church History Museum will run through year's end. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The story goes that Norman Rockwell, seeking authenticity, wanted to rip holes in the soldiers’s shirt. The GI said fine. Rockwell asked to smear mud on his face and hands. Not a problem.

But when the artist asked to rub dirt on his machine gun, the soldier refused: No proper gunner could tolerate that. So Rockwell portrayed the GI as tattered and begrimed, but with his big gray Browning machine gun sleek and clean.

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