The mining magnate Gina Rinehart gifted a painting of herself to Australia’s National Portrait Gallery, but there appear to be strings attached.
A Senate estimates hearing on Friday heard that the gallery’s board was processing a deed of gift made by Australia’s richest woman – an approved portrait of herself.
But the portrait, which was donated long before the current National Gallery of Australia controversy over another depiction of the billionaire, has yet to be accepted by the gallery in what appears to be five years of negotiations.
“There were some conditions that came along with that gift that meant those conditions are currently under negotiation,” the portrait gallery’s director, Bree Pickering, told the hearing.
“Because of those conditions, we haven’t been able to formally accept … the work into the collection.”
She declined to detail what the conditions were, but indicated it was to do with the way the work would be displayed.
The portrait, gifted in 2019, is by Alix Korte, a realist artist and the wife of the chief executive of Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting, Garry Korte. The Perth-based artist’s works can be snapped up online for as little as $630 for an original.
It is believed the portrait was given to Rinehart by her chief executive as a birthday present.
“We don’t often accept gifts with conditions,” Pickering said, without volunteering any opinion of the donation’s artistic merits.
“We will work with an artist, often, to understand how they would like their artwork displayed, but the sitter does not normally have any say over how the work is hung.”
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked if anyone other than Rinehart had made submissions to the gallery over how the yet-to-be-accepted portrait was to be displayed?
“No swimmers have written to you?” she asked.
“No. I haven’t heard from swimmers,” Pickering replied.
Also giving evidence on Friday was the director of the National Gallery of Australia, where the Vincent Namatjira portrait of Rinehart that attracted international attention remained hanging.
More than one-third of the correspondence the NGA had received from the public over the display of the unflattering portrait of Rinehart had been negative, Nick Mitzevich told the hearing.
But the public had flocked to the national museum in droves to see the Namatjira exhibition since the story broke about alleged pressure the billionaire – and the sporting body she has been an exceptionally generous benefactor to, Swimming Queensland – placed on the gallery to have the portrait removed.
Mitzevich said visitor numbers had increased by 24% since the first story emerged about Rinehart’s displeasure about being included in Namatjira’s Australia in Colour exhibition, which opened on 2 March.
“We’re expecting the visitor numbers to continue to be dynamic,” a flushed and sheepishly smiling Mitzevich told the hearing via video link, as muffled giggles could be heard from the committee room floor.
“You should be writing a letter back to Gina saying thank you,” Hanson-Young remarked.
The director said the gallery had received 47 articles of correspondence that were negative out of a total of 125, and eight requests for the Rinehart portrait to be removed from the exhibition, but declined to name those who had made the request.
“One of the things that we don’t do is breach privacy with the identity of people who provide feedback to the National Gallery,” Mitzevich said.
