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Norman Rockwell painting auctioned for $1 million missing from NYC storage unit

Police are searching for a missing Norman Rockwell painting of this Saturday Evening Post magazine cover also created by the artist. NYPD via CBS New York

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - The New York Police Department is investigating after a Norman Rockwell painting disappeared from a Queens storage facility.

The 1939 painting recently sold at an auction for $1 million. Police say it disappeared in September from Welpak Art Moving and Storage in Maspeth, Queens.

The work, titled "Sport," depicts a fisherman wearing a yellow rain jacket and smoking a pipe. The painting was based on a Saturday Evening Post cover, one of many Rockwell created for the magazine.

The oil painting was sold by a private collector in Birmingham, Ala., at a Sotheby's auction in New York on May 22. Police didn't identify the owner.

The painting is about 22'' by 28'' and is in a wooden frame, according to CBS New York.

Welpak didn't immediately return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment. It says on its website that it offers high-quality security and a variety of fine art shipping and climate-controlled services.

Norman Rockwell was a 20th century artist known for his illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. A museum in his honor, in Stockbridge, Mass., holds the largest collection of his original paintings.

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