The Art Museum of Western Virginia took the wraps off a whole bin full of previously undisclosed pictures and paintings Monday, including one by someone almost everyone has heard of: Norman Rockwell.

The famed illustrator, who painted hundreds of covers for the Saturday Evening Post, has become increasingly prized by serious art collectors in recent years. The humorous, tables-turning "Framed," which depicts museum portraits gazing at an unsuspecting museum worker, is one of several Rockwell did on museum subjects. It was purchased for the museum, apparently in 2002, by the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust. The trust has bought dozens of paintings for the museum in recent years.

Museum chief curator Susannah Koerber called Rockwell "a fantastic artist by any standard. I think this is destined to be a real favorite."

Two other Fralin Trust-funded works, "Midsummer," by George Inness and "Cooper's Bluff -- Midnight Strollers" by Eduard Steichen, were unveiled Monday as well. Beginning today, with the opening of its new exhibit, "Gifts," the museum will display all three, plus two galleries full of additional works donated to or earmarked for the collection, among them works by modern artists Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage.

Executive director Georganne Bingham said the exhibit gives the museum, which is constructing a new, $66 million building, an opportunity to show the depth of its collection. "So many people have questions about, 'we're building this incredible new building, what are we going to put in it?' " Bingham said. In fact, because of the museum's current cramped quarters, it can display only a fraction of its collection at a time, Bingham said. "We have a lot of new things."

She called the Rockwell "a pretty big coup for us. They don't come on the market very often."

The museum does not reveal how much it pays for paintings. But the Rockwell was sold to an undisclosed buyer -- presumably the Fralin Trust -- by the New York auction house Sotheby's for $834,500 on Dec. 4, 2002, Sotheby's records show.

The highest figure ever paid for a Rockwell painting is $15.4 million, for "Breaking Home Ties," a Saturday Evening Post cover depicting a rancher sending his son off to college in 1954.

The museum unveiled its gifts to an advance crowd Monday with fanfare and speeches, though the museum was officially closed. The morning event was attended by U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke; Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke; Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris; and dozens of museum supporters.

"This is a time to celebrate the generosity of the community," said Goodlatte before the paintings were unwrapped. People crowded around as museum officials pulled black covers off the paintings one by one. The Rockwell seemed to generate the most buzz.

And what about the others? Steichen, famed now for his photographs, was also a painter who destroyed many of his works. He was influenced by painter James McNeill Whistler's dreamlike "Nocturnes" and Japanese prints. The painting "Cooper's Bluff" depicts a bluff behind a grove of ghostly trees. "These are extremely rare," Koerber said.

Inness was a nature painter whose realistic landscapes were edging toward abstraction by the time he painted "Midsummer" in 1875, noted Debra Force, a New York art dealer who has been a consultant to the museum for years. She said the painting rewards close viewing. "The more one looks at it, the more you can really see."

Heywood Fralin, who administers the Fralin Trust and is past president of the museum, said he was not sure how many more paintings await unveiling in the vault. He hinted that his picture buying has tapered off in recent years, as the museum has turned its attention to its building fund.

"We are much more focused on building the building right now," Fralin said. "It's necessary to do one thing at a time."