NEW YORK, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - A much-loved image of Santa Claus by the late U.S. illustrator Norman Rockwell has been sold at Christie's in New York for $2.5 million, the auction house said on Friday.
The 'Extra Good Boys and Girls' cover illustration, designed for the 1939 Christmas issue of the Saturday Evening Post, was called by Christies "a symbol of a bygone era of family values and tradition."
The 90 x 73cm (35 x 29 inches) canvas, which depicts Santa checking out his route to 'extra good boys and girls,' was just one of more than 215 lots of American works of art that went under the hammer on Thursday at Christie's.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), who called himself a 'chronicler' of his time, created some 800 magazine covers and illustrations.
