A short excerpt from the long and interesting Elam v. Early , decided Friday by Fourth Circuit Marvin Judge Quattlebaum, joined by Judge Pamela Harris:

Our story begins during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. In 1943, famed artist Norman Rockwell drew four panels capturing various visitors in the West Wing waiting for an audience with FDR. That same year, Rockwell gifted the four original illustrations—entitled So You Want to See the President —to FDR's Press Secretary, Stephen T. Early…. Early was the longest-serving press secretary in our nation's history, holding the role for twelve years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roughly eight decades later, his relatives are fighting over this art….

It all turns on a claim that Early had given the prints (appraised in 1979 for

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