The National Portrait Gallery has announced that it has acquired Shepard Fairey's ubiquitous Barack Obama "Hope" image, reports the New York Times's ArtsBeat blog.

According to the Art Newspaper, the work was donated by Washington-based lobbyists and collectors Heather and Tony Podesta, whose brother John is co-chairman of Obama's transition team, in memory of the Podestas' mother, an Obama supporter since 2004.

Reproduced as posters that sold and spread like wildfire across the globe, the original mixed-media stenciled collage of the president-elect is expected to be on display by Inauguration Day, January 20.

Martin E. Sullivan, director of the museum, said that the image was “an emblem of a significant election, as well as a new presidency.”