Tas: Sotheby's ignoring calls to withdraw Aborginal busts

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2009
Tas: Sotheby's ignoring calls to withdraw Aborginal busts

By Paul Carter

HOBART, Aug 21 AAP - Sotheby's auction house is ignoring calls to withdraw the busts
of two Aboriginal leaders from sale.

The 1836 busts of Tasmanian Aboriginal leaders Woureddy and his wife Truganini are
set to fetch up to $700,000 at a Sotheby's auction in Melbourne on Monday.

Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim and Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell want the
busts withdrawn from sale and given to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community.

Asked to respond to their call, Sotheby's spokeswoman Anne Wall said the sculptures
are only one pair of multiple sets held at numerous art galleries and institutions.

"While these were on loan to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery for many years they
have, more recently, been on display in the National Portrait Gallery," she said.

"The owners have contracted Sotheby's to handle the sale on their behalf. They will
be offered at auction Monday 24 August."

Mr McKim said Sotheby's must realise the importance of these images to Tasmania's Aboriginal
community, and immediately withdraw them from sale.

"To treat these images purely as works of art is disrespectful to the ancestors of
Truganini and Woureddy," he said in a statement on Friday.

Mr McKim said the state and federal governments should purchase the works and hand
them back to the Aboriginal community if they are not withdrawn from sale.

The patinated plaster busts, about 75cm tall, were originally bought by Hobart convict
turned businessman Judah Solomon and were made by Benjamin Law, who knew Truganini and
her husband, in the 1830s.

The Solomon family has always owned the works but they were on loan to the Tasmanian
Museum and Art Gallery for 26 years until they helped open the National Portrait Gallery
in Canberra last year.

Mr Mansell said Truganini and Woureddy are dead and they can't defend themselves against
the symbolism that is portrayed by the racists of Australia who abuse their memory.

"The auction house should take responsibility and so should the vendor," Mr Mansell
said in a statement.

Others sets of these busts by Benjamin Law are held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art
Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, South Australian
Museum (on loan to Art Gallery of South Australia), Australian Museum (on loan to Art
Gallery of New South Wales), Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, British Museum and
Musee de lHomme, while individual busts are held in numerous other institutions, a Sotheby's
statement said.

AAP pc/ash

KEYWORD: SOTHEBYS UPDATE (PIX AVAILIABLE)

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