The number of purchases also barely made up for the big fall in the number of gifts made to the gallery – very pronounced even allowing for the an extraordinary blow out last year. The number of gifts at 1369 compared with 4095 in 2013 and 1183 in 2012. The chart does not give values. The year saw the politics of a nation change and a big mining boom wind down.
The board and the director, Mr Ron Radford also struggled to explain international pressure to hand over a bronze Buddha to India purchased with gifted funds for $5 million. International acquisitions had caused the gallery's followers in the mid 1970s at the height of the Whitlam years to baulk at the proposed purchase of Braque's Grand Nu also coincidentally for $1.5 million capping a list of controversial buys.
Key overseas purchases were still made in the latest year of work from cultures in the Pacific, Melanesia, including an Easter Island wooden figure and in Asia. The 20th century European collection was boosted by the acquisition of a sculpture by Joan Miro.
The purchases suggest Mr Ron Radford working hard to conclude deals that might not outlast his directorship. Just as there may have seemed no new collections left to go the gallery sealed others that had been in play for some years included the colonial silver collection of Sydney lawyer Mr John Houstone.
Mr Radford has rarely taken his eyes off the Australian colonies wherever he has been and the last year was no exception to this. The purchases included Robert Neill's Van Diemen's Land 1828 which was estimated at $180,000 to $250,000 at Sotheby's Australia's sale in Sydney last year and made $180,000 or $219,600 IBP
Benjamin Duterrau's An Infant of Van Diemen's Land was purchased in London for £60,000 hammer or £73,875 IBP(A$126,585) at a Christie's sale in London in September last year. At the same sale it purchased The Artist at His Easel (Louis Abrahams) for £25,000 (A$42,838) against £20,000-30,000,
Charles Earles' Feather Pickers a Pause in the Work which had been unsold at Christie's in 2002 with an estimate of $7000 too $10,000 was acquired. Photograph albums and rare books from Australia and the Pacific from the early years of exploration and settlement also feature.
From the Impressionist period, its major purchase was Tom Roberts' Portrait of Miss Minna Simpson (with cat) 1886 with funds donated by the National Gallery of Australia Council and Foundation. For this it paid A$800,000 hammer and A$976,000 IBP against an estimate of $300,000-to $400,000. The annual report devoted the cover to a reproduction of this painting which was purchased at Sotheby's Australia's auction in May this year.
The gallery appears to have cast its net widely as Portrait of Martin a'Beckett sold for A$8,750 A$10,238 with an estimate of $1,500 to $ 2,000 was last seen at Raffan Kelaher & Thomas Colonial Cedar Furniture & Effects including Paintings in October last year, also appears as a purchase. From Theodore Bruce's Sydney came Central Station, Brisbane by J J Hilder for $14,400 in July. David Davies' The Cobbler's Cottage, North Wales was bought at Deutscher + Hackett for $26,400 (IBP) in Melbourne in November 2013.
From various sources came John Mather Portrait Louis Buvelot, John Lewin's Kangaroos and Lambert's La Blanchisseis and Godfrey River's New South Head Road. A William Lister Lister was purchased with the assistance of Philip Bacon. Joseph Lycett's Parramatta Road from Sydney was listed in a Joseph Lebovic catalogue as a POA.
From the post Impressionist period I Looked, and Behold, a Door Was Opened in Heaven 1952 by Grace Cossington Smith which had made $97,600 at the sale by Bonhams of the Grundy Collection in June last year was listed as a purchase. The estimate was $100,000 to $150,000.
Joining it from the same collection came Horace Trenerry's Road, Aldinga Hill C.1940 A$52,000 (A$63,440 IBP) (Estimate $30,000-$40,000.). Roy de Maistre Rooftop View, Ivor Francis' Xmas 1973 Frank Hinder Commuters and Hector Gililland's Begonias also came in.
Although giving a fillip to auction houses the sales mean that the works are unlikely to appear on the market again unless there is a serious change in the culture of Australia. They also suggest that notions of big new buyers appearing on the auction market at least for early stuff are far fetched although much is now being transacted privately.
But these period pieces may not be wanted by the auction industry because there is little else around to offer them. It seems to be time for change, out with the old and in with the new as it was in 1973 and 1976.
