‘More bodyguards than Frank Sinatra’: When Blue Poles first toured, it was met with street protests. Now it’s crossing Australia

Blue Poles by American artist Jackson Pollock, pictured in the Heller family's New York apartment. Photograph: Heller family/NGA

Moving Blue Poles is never straightforward.

At more than 2m high and nearly 5m long, the legendary Jackson Pollock painting has almost always been too big for wherever it needs to go.