Hot, sunny Brisbane, the gateway to the Gold Coast, doesn’t often spring to mind when one thinks of the great private art collections of Australia. And yet, the city has produced its share, including the Trout Collection and the Johnstone Collection, sold in the late 1980s and mid 1990s respectively. But it’s been decades since a collection of note has come up for sale in Brisbane. Next month, that long spell will be broken when Philip Bacon Galleries exhibits and sells the Hirst Collection, which has a remarkable backstory, as much for its art as for the collectors who amassed it.

“I was astonished, of course, when I saw the collection,” Philip Bacon told Saleroom. “The Rodins, the Drysdales, the amazing Dobells, right here in Brisbane.”