Stonnington Council spends $13,000 on Polixeni Papapetrou photograph

STONNINGTON Council’s multimillion-dollar art collection is set to get bigger following its decision to spend $13,000 on a photograph by Australian artist Polixeni Papapetrou — but the move has divided opinion.

• Is this the way to win Chinese business?
• Councillors splash thousands of dollars on overseas trips
• Bayside Council spends $155,000 on art trail in Hampton
• Shire’s $200k spend on Rosebud sculpture

STONNINGTON Council’s multimillion-dollar art collection is set to get bigger following its decision to buy a $13,000 photograph by Australian artist Polixeni Papapetrou.

The council’s art collection is valued at $5.3 million, and in supporting the purchase, councillor Glen Atwell said Papapetrou was a “well-credentialed artist” and the community would be fortunate to own the piece.

Stonnington Council will spend $13,000 on Polixeni Papapetrou's "Delphi".

But Cr Judy Hindle baulked at the proposal, telling fellow councillors at a recent meeting she felt it was unreasonable to spend so much money on a piece that would not be unique to the council’s collection.

A smaller version of the same photo is owned by Monash Council, and Cr Hindle said it was hardly special given it was part of a series of similar works by the same artist.

She noted the piece Stonnington Council planned to buy was marginally bigger, the biggest in the series, but she said this wasn’t enough to justify spending that much cash.

Photographer Polixeni Papapetrou at her Fitzroy studio in Melbourne.

“We shouldn’t buy art as an investment, it’s not that sort of thing. Why would we buy something when Monash councillors could come here and all we could say is ‘ours is bigger than yours?’,” Cr Hindle said.

Cr Judy Hindle was opposed to the decision to buy the photograph.

Cr Marcia Griffin supported the decision to buy the work, but said she’d like to see the council’s future art acquisition policy reviewed to place greater focus on public art pieces.

She said most ratepayers had never seen some of the council’s artworks, and the art should be available in the public sphere for the community to enjoy.

Chief executive Warren Roberts said some of the artworks were on display in public locations throughout the municipality, including libraries.