DALLAS — In a painting by Norman Rockwell, a family proudly greets a beaming scout who returns from camp, duffel bag in hand. In another painfully idyllic Rockwell work, a cub scout stands on a chair to measure the chest of his older brother, a boy scout who taped his fitness record on his bedroom wall.

Many works in the Boy Scouts of America collection are as closely tied to American life as the organization itself, having been featured on magazine covers, calendars and even used to sell war bonds. Next week, the works will begin being auctioned off to help pay compensation owed to tens of thousands of people, mostly men, who were sexually abused during scouting activities.

The collection of more than 300 works, including dozens by Rockwell, is valued at nearly $60 million, a tiny sum compared to the organization’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy plan. Campgrounds and other Boy Scout properties were also sold to help pay survivors.

“The idea that an iconic art collection that the Boy Scouts amassed over many years be liquidated in order to pay reparations for survivors and bring them some measure of justice, I think, is very significant,” he said. said Barbara Houser, a retired bankruptcy judge who oversees the survivors’ settlement trust.

This year, the 114-year-old organization based in suburban Dallas announced it would become Scouting America, a change intended to signal the organization’s commitment to inclusiveness. The group now welcomes girls, as well as gay youth and leaders.

Compensation for survivors

Hoping to survive an avalanche of sexual abuse claims, the Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in 2020. The $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan, among the largest and most complex in the country, allowed the organization to continue operating while compensating survivors. It came into force last year.

Houser said more than 82,000 people filed claims during the bankruptcy case and of those, more than 64,000 filled out a detailed questionnaire to assert their claims. Survivors will be paid based on the severity of the abuse they suffered.

“Many of these survivors have literally been waiting decades for recognition of what happened to them,” Houser said.

There could be multiple distributions of funds to survivors as money becomes available and other litigation unfolds, and the amount each survivor receives will depend on the amount of money collected by the trust, Houser said.

So far, nearly 6,000 survivors have opted in to receive one-time payments of $3,500 and different settlements are being determined for other survivors, with some payments beginning for them.

In addition to art sales, contributors to the trust include insurers and local Boy Scout councils. As of October, more than 30 municipal properties had been sold, Scouting America reported.

The survivors

Tom Krumins had only begun to have conversations with family and friends about the abuse he suffered as a middle school student at a camp in South Carolina when the bankruptcy was filed. It took him months to decide whether to join the colony.

“It’s the kind of bravery and courage that an Eagle Scout should have, but at the same time, you feel like you’re ripping a part of yourself away or losing yourself along the way,” said Krumins.

He focused on the Boy Scouts’ commitments to youth protection, which survivors insisted should be strengthened before voting in favor of the bankruptcy plan. The money will help, but the most important thing is “to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Doug Kennedy, a survivor and co-chair of a committee representing victims in the bankruptcy case, said more than three-quarters of the plaintiffs approved of the plan, but watching the process play out in court has been “agonizing” for them. survivors.

“The reality is that for most survivors, all this resolves is bankruptcy, it doesn’t resolve their pain and it doesn’t resolve what was taken from them,” he said.

The work of art

The collection will be sold by Heritage Auctions in Dallas in the coming years, including more than two dozen works that will go on sale Friday.

The collection includes nearly 60 works by Rockwell, who worked for the organization’s magazine, Boys’ Life, early in his career and maintained a relationship with scouting for more than half a century, including creating images for their calendars.

A work by JC Leyendecker depicting a scout signaling with flags was painted in 1911, a year after the organization was founded. It appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post magazine and was reproduced several times on reconnaissance material. His 1918 painting of a Boy Scout holding a sword in front of a depiction of Lady Liberty draped in a flag and brandishing a shield was adapted as a poster to sell World War I bonds.

“Many artists have been really involved in strengthening the culture and vision of the Boy Scouts,” said Aviva Lehmann, senior vice president of American art at Heritage.

For four years, the works have been exhibited at the Medici Museum in Ohio. Before that, some were on display at the National Scout Museum.