Brand said in a speech given in the auditorium of the AGNSW only that the engraving had been purchased in New York at auction in late January.
Although not yet confirmed as the same specimen, the only copy of the print with this title to go up at auction in New York in that period sold for $US530,000 at Christies New York on January 29.
This was within estimates and sold at the auction labelled An Important Collection of Prints by Albrecht Durer and although knocked down to the "art trade" (presumably acting on commission) it is reliably stated to be the same work.
Albrecht Durer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking.
The work now acquired is one of four of his masterworks.
With its big Old Master collection including many more Durers than NSW, the NGV is the AGNSW's principal competition for public recognition as a national institution. It has lost a lot of staff and is desperately short of space.
Brand made repeated comparisons with the NGV in a a speech outlining his plans for building expansion this week. He said he wanted to make the AGNSW a truly national institution. Ironically the AGNSW dropped the word “national” from its name many decades ago.
The NGV and the National Gallery of Australia had a fight over who should use the elevating adjective in the 1990s.
Thanks to the bequest of chemist Alfred Felton the NGV has a major Old Master collection to die for.
Yet in announcing his new project for the AGNSW as Sydney_Modern (note the fashionable contemporary use of underscore) Brand started off with an Old Master work.
Otherwise his emphasis in a speech given in the packed AGNSW auditorium on March 7 was on living artists with a brief aside to Islamic art, Brand's own speciality, areas in which the collection should grow.
He said the gallery had bought the work of living artists from its earliest days.
If duplicating the entire collection of works by Albert Durer is next to impossible, acquiring prints like Melencolia I, one of the top four of his prints, is a good substitute
The identity of the owner of the collection from which it came was not disclosed but it is an open secret in New York that it was that of Samuel Josefowitz.
The Swiss Josefowitz was the second biggest buyer of Old Master prints in the second half of the 20th century with money no object.
The AGNSW has a group of Durer wood engravings gathered over many years but nothing like the Barlow collection which it secured in 1956 for the then staggering sum of £56,000.
In the same year the gallery bought works by Janet Dawson, John Olsen, John Brack and Lina Bryans. In another ironic twist a Barlow collection is being sold in Brisbane, the Collection of Joel Barlow under instructions from the Queensland Public Trustee.
Joel Barlow is no relation as Sir Thomas Barlow was a UK banker who was a major collector of Old Master art, not of champagne bottles and luxury brands.
Melencolia I (estimate: $400,000-$600,000), was engraved in 1514, is one the most enigmatic images in the history of western art. But is clear the central character is not a happy Vegemite, given the skull nearby.
The subject is considered an allegory of melancholy, but the details of its iconography have intrigued and inspired countless art historians and scholars.
Melancholy was also seen in the early 16th century as signifying the pursuit of knowledge and genius.
The Christie's collection of 62 Durer prints was expected to make more than $US4.6 million. It made $US6 million.
The charge, however, of the buyers was not led by sad artists, naked couples or knights on horse back.
The Rhinoceros, a woodblock print cut in 1515 the year that the first rhinoceros was seen in Europe since Antiquity fetched $US866,500 against an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, and a record for the artist.
Another of the masterworks which is well known Adam and Eve sold for $662,000 and St Eustace of which the AGNSW secured a copy in 1963 made $US662,000.
The AGNSW also has the engraving The Madonna with Child with Pear which it secured in 1928.
