For the past decade, Hank Ebes, the Melbourne Aboriginal art dealer who put Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s Warlugulong up for auction, has been deploring the fact that many of Australia’s most important indigenous art works have been going into private collections or sold to overseas buyers, writes Geoff Maslen.
Clifford possum
National Gallery of Australia snares the Possum
The National Gallery of Australia last night paid $2.4 million for Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s huge painting Warlugulong at a Sotheby’s auction in Melbourne, writes Geoff Maslen.
The politics of culturally significant art work
Sotheby’s Aboriginal art specialist, Tim Klingender, has been protesting for years at the impact the Protection of Moveable Cultural Heritage Act has on the sale of important Aboriginal art, writes Geoff Maslen.
Clifford Possum’s masterpiece can’t leave the country
The federal government will inform Sotheby’s today that its prize Aboriginal painting to go up for auction tonight will not be given an export permit under Australia’s Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act .
