A row has erupted between an artist and a NSW council over a 'unique' painting featuring film director Baz Luhrmann's handprint that has sold for $125,000 after it was 'rejected' for a public collection.
Hunter artist Sharon Davson donated the work, Journeys To Belonging, to the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council in June last year, with the mayor accepting it for the community art collection as a council asset.
Ms Davson said the work was approved in February 2019 in concept by the curator of the council's gallery, and the council approved it repeatedly while it was being created.
"If they didn't think it was going to be appropriate, they needed to say it before you deliver," she said.
"The fact that I was asked to just come and pick it up and take the money if I wanted to sell it is an incredible insult.
"I was very hurt, very depressed off and on for quite a while because I couldn't get any answers. I still don't have a clear answer.
"I've been passed around 18 different people within the council."
But the council says the painting was not approved at concept for inclusion in the collection by the gallery's curator as claimed.
"At no time did the painting form part of our regional gallery's collection but would have been displayed in our council buildings, including libraries, so that it could be widely accessible across our community," it said in a statement.
"It was Ms Davson's decision to collect the painting from council and to subsequently sell it."
Toowoomba businessman and collector Dale Miller, who already had an artwork by Ms Davson, purchased Journeys To Belonging in August.
"I had a feeling in my gut," he said, after learning it had Luhrmann's handprint signed by him and that it had been donated and rejected.
"To buy a painting with such a unique history for only $125,000, well, great!
"Maybe Sharon Davson will be one of the artists we read about ... one of those leadings artists the arts elite of their time turned their backs on.
"Sharon's art has inspired people across the globe ... and yet she has had a painting publicly accepted then rejected. What can I say? This is one for the history books."
'It ticked every box'
The council said the painting was not considered to be complementary with other contemporary artwork in the collection.
"Our focus for the collection is to develop a cohesive collection of contemporary artwork that maximises the opportunity to curate in-house exhibitions with consistent content, rationale and relevance to exhibitions in adjoining gallery spaces," the statement said.
It said this had been explained to Ms Davson on numerous occasions.
Ms Davson, who said she was a foundation donor to the collection and had a 30-year connection to it, said her intention was always to give a painting specifically created for the Port Macquarie collection.
"It's not as though my art is going to be somewhere outside their themes," she said.
"It's basically an abstracted landscape where you can identify different landmarks of Port Macquarie.
"Baz Luhrmann's the most famous person who came from Port Macquarie and I met him some years ago and did his handprint and he autographed them … so I built the painting around the Baz Luhrmann handprint.
"It just ticked every single box that would be appropriate for that collection."
Value for ratepayers
In its statement, the council said the cost of maintaining, insuring, and caring for assets which are not planned for brings unanticipated costs and liabilities that should not be borne by the public.
But Ms Davson said it was important that any public collection grows in value.
"If they'd been offered a Picasso or a Brett Whiteley or an Arthur Boyd, just because it's valuable, would they have turned it down to keep the collection — maybe worth half a million dollars — instead of growing the collection? That is insane," she said.
Ms Davson said she had offered the council an alternative option because she would like this to have a positive ending.
"I've had no response at all from my communications about that, so that hurts," she said.
"I'm quite willing just to draw a line under all of this and consider donating a different artwork, because then the ratepayers win.
"The reasons I wanted to donate in the first place are still valid.
"You might think it a bit strange that I'd even bother after all of this, but I'm looking at a longer view of everything.
"At some point I'll be dead and so will all the councillors, but the collection will be going on for future generations."
An original reason for donating the painting to Port Macquarie's collection was her sales of art in the region.
"Port Macquarie's been really good to me, so it was only sensible, and how I offer gratitude, to give something back to that area," she said.
