Stolen Keith Haring mural door among 300 works in NGV summer blockbuster exhibition

It was stolen from a Collingwood school before mysteriously resurfacing 20 years later — now this small door will be shown publicly again for the first time. Here's why it is so important.

A small door stolen from Collingwood almost 30 years ago is set to be shown publicly for the first time since it mysteriously resurfaced in 2013.

The service door once sat below a mural painted by renowned artist Keith Haring on an exterior wall of Collingwood Technical School in 1984.

During this visit, the US artist signed the service door with his name and tag, an outline of a crawling baby.

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Around the time Haring died in 1990, the door was stolen.

Its whereabouts were unknown until 2013, when it was anonymously returned to Creative Victoria.

NGV Director Tony Ellwood with the original door from Keith Haring’s famed mural in Collingwood in the early 1980s. Picture: Supplied

The door was then donated to NGV, where it has been sitting in storage ever since.

But the door is now set to be brought back into the public arena as part of the NGV’s next blockbuster summer exhibition, Keith Haring/Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines.

The world premiere exhibition features two leaders of late 20th-centure art and sets the contemporary edge celebrated by the NGV in recent years to a new level.

Haring (1958-90) and Basquiat (1960-88) were prominent on the New York arts scene in the 1980s, famed for their works on streets and subways of the city as well as their collaborations with the likes of Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Madonna and each other.

On Haring’s 1984 trip to Melbourne, he also painted the NGV’s water wall.

Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat at the opening reception for Julian Schnabel at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1987. Picture: George Hirose

Keith Haring preparing an artwork on the waterwall at the NGV in 1984. Photo: Geoffrey Burke

NGV director Tony Ellwood said the exhibition would survey each artist’s tragically short yet prolific career, with more than 300 artworks to be displayed.

Among them will be works created in public space, paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs and original notebooks, many of which conveyed strong social and political commentary and messages.

The Keith Haring at Collingwood Technical School.

“Haring and Basquiat respectively created powerful and enduring bodies of work rich with symbolic meaning and emotionally charged political commentary,” Ellwood said.

“With works drawn from an array of public and private collections from around the world, this exhibition provides a unique scholarly context for their rise to prominence and lasting influence, firmly embedding them in the lively and diverse social context of 1980s New York.”

Keith Haring Untitled 1982. Picture: Keith Haring Foundation

Another highlight in Crossing Lines will be Basquiat’s masterpiece Untitled, 1982 depicting a skull often featured in his work.

Dieter Buchhart, respected art historian and guest curator of Crossing Lines, said: “Haring and Basquiat redefined the role of art in public space and public debate.

“This exhibition draws out their passionate engagement with social issues, such as racism and the AIDS crisis, revealing the political context underpinning their practices.”

Keith Haring/Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. NGV International. Opens December 1.