Recently returned to a family after it was stolen more than 40 years ago, Norman Rockwell’s Lazybones (Boy Asleep With Hoe), also known as Taking a Break, is expected to sell for more than $1 million in Heritage Auctions’ November 3, 2017 American Art Auction in Dallas.

The 1919 Saturday Evening Post cover, originally purchased for less than $100 in 1954, was stolen in June 1976. After being taken from Robert and Teresa Grant’s house in a well-planned burglary, special FBI agents were able to recover and return the painting in March 2017. 

“The provenance of this masterwork is as remarkable as the painting itself. We are thrilled to bring this classic Rockwell to auction, and find its new home,” said Aviva Lehmann, Director of American Art at Heritage Auctions.

The November sale will also feature 43 works spanning the golden age of illustration in The Golden Age: Property from a Distinguished New York Collection. This single-owner collection embodies an era of excellence in magazine and book illustration. A large portion of the collection is comprised of original illustrations that were reproduced as covers for Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, and Life, among others.

Featured in this collection are works by Joseph Christian Leyendecker and Maxfield Parrish, along with Bump Mobile, The Saturday Evening Post cover, June 22, 1940, by Albert W. Hampson and Amateur Nite—Cowboy Bill’s Ramblers, The Saturday Evening Post cover, January 11, 1936, by Monte Crews. As well as an oil by George Henry Durrie titled Winter in the Country, A Cold Morning, William Merritt Chase’s Untitled (Nude Resting in a Chair), circa 1888, and Interior by Louis Ritman. 

Additional highlights include Absaroke Trail, 1993, by Howard Terpning, Wild Heliotrope near San Juan Capistrano by John Marshall Gamble, and Third Avenue El, circa 1933 by Francis Criss.