Whenever an art museum sells some of the objects from its permanent collection, a fuss is rarely far behind – particularly when the objects were gifts from a private donor and could fetch as much as half a million dollars apiece at auction.

In the 1970s and ’80s, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch gifted two beautiful canvases to the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery in Langwarrin, not far from her home, Cruden Farm, in regional Victoria.