27 February 2007

The Nolan thieves trial their larceny

| johnboy
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The Chief Minister is trumpetting his temporary theft of the Sydney Nolan masterworks left to the Lanyon Homestead and not to him.

His rinky little Canberra Museum and Gallery (which never seems to lack so much for visitors as funds despite cuts to everything else the people of this town hold dear) has tired of exhibiting the shoes of the Chief Ministers favourite personal staff and has realised it’s long held ambition to get the Nolans where they can justify their own little hobby horse:

“Recent high humidity levels at the gallery have led to the temporary closure of the gallery for monitoring and Mr Stanhope said the Government had decided to turn the incident to best advantage and take the opportunity to display the iconic Nolan works in a more central location, where they could be more easily enjoyed by Canberrans. In the meantime, a specialist conservator has been commissioned to investigate climate control at the Nolan Gallery.”

Letting CMAG run the Nolan museum at Lanyon was always going to lead to this. Climate control down eh? Can’t be arsed fixing it eh? Oh well, may as well take what they want and bung it on display in the permanent collection with a fig leaf muttering about the “temporary” nature of the move.

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a mans wishes should be honoured.

stanhope and his fellow travellers have no shame.

The point is Nolan didn’t leave them to be the plaything of the local despot, his bequest was quite clear and his widow has since been extremely clear that they were a gift for Lanyon.

It’s not about maximising public utility it’s about honouring the deal by which we were given an incredible gift.

Naturally the ACT Government is incapable of such things.

Oh no, having paintings near where the majority of people can actually get to them – what a horrible government this is! How dare they!

I’m really failing to find the outrage here…

Ingeegoodbee10:11 pm 27 Feb 07

This is trying to achieve a long term vision for the wanna-be elite arts set in Canberra who lothe the idea of trundling out to the outer suburbs to see iconic Australian art – which they believe belongs in the nice inner northern suburbs where its easy to get a latte and people dont laugh at you for wearing a charcoal cashmere turtleneck on a 35 degree day.

Some years ago I was part of a team that was pulling together a quote for advice on whether or not the Nolan collection should stay at Lanyon or move to the inner ‘burbs. During the development stage we decided not to proceed as it was made quite clear to us that we were expected to find that the collection should be moved … strange how old plans come back to life…

Is it just me, or is this town getting a little bit ridiculous in a local government sense?

barking toad7:07 pm 27 Feb 07

Didn’t one of our local council members drive down to collect these when there was a worry that the fires approaching Canberra might pose a threat? Then went on leave?

Of course this was only a day or so before the the mayor declared the state of emergency.

The mayor obviously would not have been aware of it.

Sucks all kinds of arse. Was one of the few compensations for living in Banks, being able to treadle on down the road with visitors for some class art and then coffee in the homestead.

Just another amenity lost to the Stanhopeless Way.

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