The National Gallery of Victoria confirmed it has dropped its security contractor, Wilson Security. It follows protests from international artists and activists against the security firm, which provided services at offshore detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru.
Following Guardian Australia’s release of the Nauru Files, Wilson Security has been subject to serious allegations of sexual assault and violence by its employees against refugees and asylum seekers, including children and women, detained at the centres. Wilson’s contract with the centres expired on October 2017; it has been under contract with the NGV since July.
The Artists’ Committee – a group of arts workers who have been petitioning the gallery to drop Wilsons – said on Wednesday they had received a message from an NGV official saying “SecureCorp has been appointed as the NGV’s long-term security provider”.
The gallery has been under increasing pressure to cancel the contract. The Artists’ Committee have staged a number of stunts at the gallery, including blockading the entrance, adding red dye to the outside water feature and covering Picasso’s Weeping Woman with a black veil branded by Wilson Security.
At the recent NGV Triennial – the inaugural major design exhibition – international artists including Richard Mosse, Candice Breitz and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer joined the protest, renaming or changing their exhibiting works in solidarity.
In August, following an open letter signed by more than 1,500 members of the arts community urging the gallery to cancel the contract, the NGV released a statement clarifying that Wilson Security was the gallery’s “interim security service provider”, chosen by the Victorian government security services panel following a wage scandal involving their previous contractor, Business Risks.
However in a statement issued on Wednesday, an NGV spokesman said the gallery had changed security providers, but he did not state that it was due to public pressure, or because of Wilson Security’s association with detention centres.
“Wilson Security was the NGV’s interim security service provider while we were in a Victorian government procurement process to secure a long-term security services provider,” the statement said. “We have commenced the short transition to our new provider.”
In response, Artists’ Committee member Kylie Wilkinson said the NGV had “done the right thing ... We hope that these discussions have resonated in the state offices and will have an impact on other contracts that the Victorian government is involved in”.
