National Trust sell-off ‘a betrayal’

Outrage as Tasmania’s National Trust quietly tried to sell off heritage items.

National Trust managing director Matthew Smithies outside Clarendon House. Picture: Ross Marsden

Tasmania’s National Trust has quietly tried to sell more than 50 heritage items in its collection, sparking outrage from members, supporters and heritage experts, some of whom see it as a ­“betrayal”.

Those concerned at the sell-off, being conducted through a Launceston auction house since July, criticise the process as ­“secretive” and lacking consultation. They believe the sale of items in the collection at the trust’s historic Clarendon House, in northern Tasmania, is an insult to the people who donated them.

The trust declined to provide a list of the 52 items, but several former trust figures and heritage experts said they included donated antique furniture, ceramics and paintings previously displayed at Clarendon.

They were concerned the sale fell short of best practice for disposal of unwanted collection items, known as deaccessioning.

Margaret Birtley, a museum and heritage consultant and member of several National Trust Victoria advisory committees, said this meant prior consultation with the public, members and donors or their heirs, and attempts to house the items in other public institutions.

“By giving something to a museum-type organisation, the donor is usually of the firm understanding that this organisation will manage and care for that object long into the future,” she said. “There is an expectation of perpetual ownership. Anything that has been removed from a location that has had public benefaction is a destruction of memory for that community.”

Former National Trust Tasmania president and life member Lionel Morrell was “shocked” to discover items from Clarendon on sale at Tullochs Auctions in Launceston. Also a past trust nat­ional director, he said he was “not at all” convinced there had been an adequate process.

“I don’t know who’s been consulted — it’s been completely secretive,” he said. “It was a shock to me to just happen to call into Tullochs one day and recognise the dining chairs and a drawing room suite.”

Trust managing director Matthew Smithies said the items had been in storage for “the past 10 years” and were “low-grade”.

He said the items were sent to auction only after a lengthy, “proper” process in line with global practice. “We have followed correct heritage management protocol in every aspect of this,” he said. Any funds raised would be used for conservation of the remaining Clarendon collection.

Greens MP Cassy O’Connor has written to state Heritage Minister Peter Gutwein questioning what two government representatives on the trust board knew of the sale.