This Month
Biggest gift completes ‘unfinished business’ at National Gallery
The Canberra institution finally has a work by one of the 20th century’s most influential painters, Edvard Munch of The Scream fame, thanks to philanthropist Geoff Ainsworth.
March
Chinese ships a reality check for our military
Readers’ letters on Chinese military vessels circling Australia, Donald Trump’s stance on Ukraine, Woolworths’ cost cuts and the Jackson Pollock painting Blue Poles.
February
Blue Poles: how Australia came to own the Jackson Pollock masterpiece
This edited extract reveals how Australia acquired one of the 20th century’s most prized paintings – and why then PM Gough Whitlam was so invested in the purchase.
December 2024
Long dead, Jackson Pollock finally makes it to Paris
We all know about Blue Poles but a new retrospective at the Musée Picasso shows the troubled path the great abstract expressionist took to painting it.
July 2024
Vale Terry Ingram, and a life observing in the Saleroom
Saleroom’s founding columnist spent 44 years reporting stories the industry wanted to keep quiet, including the art sale story of the century on Blue Poles.
The horror of war in a century-old letter
A letter from the WWI front line and a book of poetry by a famous Sydney eccentric will be auctioned in a sale of arts, war and social history.
May 2024
Gina Rinehart lobbies NGA to remove Indigenous portrait
The country’s richest resident has made her displeasure privately known about a portrait at the national institution.
August 2023
At Artbank, every dog is having his day
Artbank, which leases art to businesses, governments and consumers, is celebrating a record year with a canine-themed exhibition for International Dog Day.
Beating the world to Blue Poles, 50 years on
As a hungry young reporter for The Australian Financial Review, Terry Ingram landed the major scoop of the Whitlam government’s plan to buy Jackson Pollock’s masterpiece.
July 2023
How to own a fragment of Pollock’s Blue Poles... for just $2190
Special limited edition Jackson Pollock NFTs and prints will be offered for sale for the first time, taken from the floor of his Long Island studio space.
October 2021
Acclaim and controversy as records smashed for sculptures old and new
As auction records tumbled for another Australian female artist the NGA’s “out of the ballpark” $14 million commission sparked heated debate about art valuations.
June 2020
Marc Chagall pops up at auction after a 20-year absence
Leonard Joel's Sydney auction will feature a smattering of works from author Thomas Keneally's collection but the big draw is a rare, but not totally uncontroversial, work by the Russian-French modernist.
May 2020
National Gallery of Australia unveils staged reopening
Australia's national cultural institutions are reopening, with unprecedented physical distancing rules in place during the pandemic.
March 2020
Back to Blue Poles: family reunion for Jackson Pollock masterpiece
The National Gallery of Australia has hosted a reunion for the original owners of its most famous artwork.
October 2019
The man who sold Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles to Australia
A new film looking at Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles includes the final interview with powerhouse New York art collector Ben Heller.