Art Gallery boss spent thousands wining and dining at Sydney’s best restaurants

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has called the Art Gallery of NSW boss “out of touch” after he billed taxpayers thousands of dollars for meals at Sydney’s finest restaurants. See the receipts.

Franca Brasserie in Potts Point is one of Sydney’s finest restaurants – and taxpayers spent nearly $800 for the Art Gallery boss to dine there. Picture: John Appleyard

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has slammed the Art Gallery of NSW Director Michael Brand as “completely out of touch’’ after he billed taxpayers thousands of dollars for meals at Sydney’s finest restaurants.“

“It’s completely out of touch with those situations, you know, where families right across our state are dealing with high prices, high grocery bills, higher energy bills,” Mr Perrottet said to 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“And this type of largesse has no place in government at all. I’ll be ensuring that doesn’t occur in the future.

“When I read that article in the Daily Telegraph (I thought it’s), absolutely out of touch. Terrible and it needs to stop.”

The Daily Telegraph earlier revealed Mr Brand had billed taxpayers thousands of dollars for meals at Sydney’s finest restaurants including $1180 at Otto in Woolloomooloo, $1033 at Firedoor in Surry Hills and $779 at Franca Brasserie in Potts Point.

Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) Dr Michael Brand

Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard.

Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand’s choice of power lunch hot spots are revealed in his Citibank credit card statements for the past two years, obtained by The Daily Telegraph under freedom of information laws.

The public servant, who is on a salary of about $450,000 per year, also regularly spent hundreds of dollars at the bottle-o over the same period.

Credit card statements reveal Dr Brand spent over $1700 at the revamped Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo.

That included spending $254 at a Florida-based company called Vintage Liquors in December 2021 and $522 at Elizabeth Bay Cellars earlier that month.

In August the previous year he spent $718 at the same store followed by more than $215 a month later.

Other purchases on his credit card statements include $1043 in January 2021 at the now defunct Italian restaurant Lucio’s at Paddington.

On March 4 he spent $708 at Raku Dining in Canberra before nipping back to Sydney to spend $532 at an Indian restaurant in Surry Hills called Foreign Return just two days later.

Bar Totti's in Bondi, another of the swanky restaurants Dr Brand dined at. Photographer: Nikki To

Other purchases include a $420 taxi ride this year, $447.50 at Sit Back and Relax furniture store at Alexandria and a relatively restrained purchase of $59 at Kathmandu in Bondi Junction in November 2020.

At the same time, the annual report shows that visitor numbers dropped off a cliff from 1,587,386 to 666,572 as Covid restrictions ravaged the gallery.

An Art Gallery of NSW spokeswoman would not answer specific questions about who attended the restaurants but said hospitality was a key part of strategy, creating partnerships and philanthropy.

Elizabeth Bay Cellars, where the gallery director spend nearly $2000 since 2020.

“This engagement has made possible the Art Gallery raising $109 million dollars through its philanthropic capital campaign for its major expansion, the Sydney Modern Project, opening in December,” she said.

“Credit card expenses incurred by the director are authorised by delegated officers and the president of the Board of Trustees. These expenses are within approved limits and directly align with the role and responsibilities.”

Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance marketing co-ordinator Ebony Graveur said it was disappointing to see where and how much of other people’s money had been spent.

“While plenty of people are aware that taxpayer money is whittled away to iconic bureaucratic inefficiency and poor allocation of funding, few taxpayers seem to realise just how much is wasted by public servants living high on the hog,” she said.

“Of the 26 million people in Australia, I personally would be willing to bet that not a single one would consider Mr Brand’s bourgeois dinners to be an effective use of taxpayer money.”