Big-time art museum in Bentonville, Ark.? Walmart heiress says that's exactly where it belongs

It's been more than 50 years since a museum dedicated entirely to American art was opened in the U.S. That will change Friday, but the grand opening won't be in New York, Los Angeles or Philadelphia. This multi-million dollar museum will open its doors in Bentonville, Ark., a rural town of about 35,000 best known as the home of Walmart. The museum was the brainchild of Alice Walton, left, 62-year-old daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. She is the 10th wealthiest American, according to Forbes magazine.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art "is regarded as the nation's most important new art museum in a generation," reports Chuck Bartels of The Associated Press, largely because of the collection Walton spent more than 20 years amassing. Carol Vogel of The New York Times reports that Walton's collection includes Gilbert Stewart's "portrait of George Washington from 1797 ($8.1 million), Asher B. Durand’s "Kindred Spirits" from 1849 ($35 million) and Norman Rockwell’s 1943 "Rosie the Riveter" ($4.9 million)." Acquisition of Thomas Eakins' "The Gross Clinic" proved more problematic. Steve Paul of the Kansas City Star reported that she put up $68 million with help from the National Gallery of Art to buy the painting from a Philadelphia medical school, but most Philadelphians thought the painting was a "piece of its cultural patrimony," and raised enough to counter the offer and keep the painting in Pennsylvania.

Walton told Vogel it was not easy "dealing with members of the East Coast art establishment" when she first announced plans to build the museum because "a lot of people there don’t really know this part of the world, really don’t know the people here and the desire and the need for art." Bartels reports that art critics and lovers on the East Coast "bemoaned the notion that cherished works were being commandeered for display in an Ozark mountain town." When she bought "Kindred Spirits," some felt the New York Public Library "had cast off a beloved part of its history." Walton said she never wanted to collect anything else but American art for Crystal Bridges because Bentonville is "the heartland of the country," and "It’s what should be here."

Bartels reports the museum will display 440 works, much of them being seen publicly for the first time because Walton bought them from private collections. Crystal Bridges is a 10-minute walk through the woods from Bentonville's downtown square, on 120 acres that have long been owned by the Walton family, and includes three and a half miles of trails. Bartels reports that tourism officials "expect the museum to become an even more popular landmark than the $160 million Clinton Presidential Center" in Little Rock, and to bring millions into Bentonville as people from across the country travel to visit the museum.

CBS "Sunday Morning" this week profiled Walton and Crystal Bridges (below) very well. You can find that report here.