In the week after COP26 came to an end, it’s bitter-sweet that one of Australia’s major banks has announced that it’s selling its $10 million art collection to support projects that will help communities prepare for natural disasters in the face of climate change.
In a sign of shifting priorities, the National Australia Bank is divesting itself of its vast collection of Australian art and will be ploughing the money raised into its philanthropic arm, the NAB Foundation, which provides grants to communities confronting the ever-increasing risk of fires, floods and cyclones. Assembled in the 1970s, the collection features leading Australian artists including John Brack, Fred Williams, John Olsen and Albert Tucker.
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Gabriella Coslovich is an arts journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, including 15 at The Age, where she was a senior arts writer. Her book, Whiteley on Trial, on Australia’s most audacious of alleged art fraud, won a Walkley in 2018.
