"The Manapessa," the only nude painting by the late Norman Rockwell, was sold at auction for $50,000.
Tom Sullivan of suburban West Bloomfield Township bought the painting, also called "Portrait of Miss Jackie Wells," as an investment. "I'm surprised I got it for that price," he said.DuMouchelles Art Galleries estimated the portrait could have brought as much as $60,000, said auctioneer Joseph Walker.
The portrait is of former art model Jackie Wells, now a 61-year-old Detroit secretary, who posed for Rockwell in 1958. Rockwell later gave Wells the painting.
Walker said the facts that the nude was smaller and not a usual Rockwell portrait made a difference in its price.
"This work was not typical; therefore, your normal Rockwell collector was not there," and the bidding was lower, he said.
Sullivan said he will first offer the painting to the Detroit Institute of Arts for public exhibition and then it is to go in his living room.