Gina Rinehart hits back at suggestion she gifted portrait to National Gallery after not liking Vincent Namatjira artwork

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has hit back at claims she gifted a portrait of herself to the National Gallery amid a high-profile spat over another painting.

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has hit back at claims she gifted a portrait of herself to the National Portrait Gallery as the high-profile spat over the mining magnate’s likeness continues to deepen.

The revelation comes weeks after Ms Reinhart made international headlines over her reported distaste of a portrait of her by the artist Vincent Namatjira as part of his collection currently on display at the Canberra gallery.

On Friday, gallery director Bree Pickering told senate estimates the board had accepted a portrait of Ms Rinehart which was gifted by the 70-year-old, which would dispalyed after “conditions” were negotiated.

A spokesman for Hancock Prospecting has since hit back at those claims, stating instead that the portrait was created on request of the National Gallery of Australia and gifted by the artist, Alix Korte, in 2019.

“It has been falsely stated or implied in the media, potentially from the way this was discussed in Senate estimates, that the portrait was recently provided to the NPA. This is not correct,” the statement said.

“Mrs Korte took some six months to very carefully create a number of portraits of Mrs Rinehart during this time, with no charge for the entire six months to Mrs Rinehart or to any of her companies.

“Ms Rinehart does not currently know which portrait created by this talented WA artist is held by the National Portrait Gallery, but does recall, the portraits were very carefully done and captured in detail her appearance at that time.”

Hancock Prospecting said Ms Reinhart was approached by the Canberra gallery sometime between 2017-18 to sit for a portrait, which the magnate said she preferred be done by a WA artist and at no cost to the NPA.

Gina Rinehart has gifted a portrait of herself to the National Gallery of Australia. Picture: Supplied

The revelations come after Ms Pickering told Senate estimates it might be a while before the public lays eyes on the mysterious portrait of Ms Rinehart after she claimed the deed of the gift had “some conditions” attached to it.

“Those conditions are currently under negotiation but because of those conditions we haven’t been able to formally accept and accession the work into the collection,” Ms Pickering said.

She declined to confirm what those negotiations were but but they “related to the display” of the portrait.

When questioned by senator Sarah Hanson-Young over whether it was common for people to gift portraits of themselves with a list of conditions, Ms Pickering said it certainly was an unusual request that the gallery was trying to work through.

“We often don’t accept gifts with conditions, we would work with an artist often to see how they’d like their artwork displayed but the sitter does not normally have any say over how the work is hung,” Ms Pickering said.

“I would say we haven’t received any requests to hang the work.
“We’ve received a gift which has been accepted and if we are able to formally accession the work, it would be another cultural object to curate in exhibitions as needed.”

Ms Pickering said she was aware Ms Rinehart was unhappy with the Namatjira portrait bearing her likeness that will hang as part of the collection until July.

“She seems to have indicated that no, she does not like that portrait,” Ms Pickering told senate estimates.

Ms Hanson-Young continued her questioning about the gifted portrait, stating it seemed unusual that there were demands attached.

“So it’s not that Gina Rinehart is obviously against portraits of herself because she likes this one, she owns this one, she wants this one hung in a particular way that you’re having to negotiate but she clearly doesn’t like the portrait hanging of her in the National Gallery,” Ms Hanson-Young said.

The billionaire recently demanded National Gallery remove her portrait painted by artist Vincent Namatjira.

Ms Pickering said during the estimates hearing that the gallery had also not received any requests from “swimmers” or anyone else about the gifted portrait and its attached demands.

It comes as Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann helped organise a group of 20 elite swimmers to campaign for the gallery to remove the portrait of its patron and major sponsor.

The ABC reported that since the widespread controversy of the Namatjira portrait, visitor numbers to the National Gallery are up by 24 per cent.

Originally published as Gina Rinehart hits back at suggestion she gifted portrait to National Gallery after not liking Vincent Namatjira artwork