Major artworks safeguarded for decades in private collections are sure to elicit interest when they come under the hammer for the first time in Menzies’ Important Australian and International Art auction in Melbourne on March 29.

William Robinson’s gloriously chaotic Farm II, 1982, is from the estate of Sydney property developer Thomas Breuer, who died last year. The Bellevue Hill compound Mr Breuer shared with his wife Eva Breuer, the art dealer who died in 2010, is on the market at a price guide of $36 million.