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Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has gifted a portrait of herself to the National Gallery – but she’s attached “conditions” that must be met before the art is hung.
Former Special Forces commando Wes Hennessey has spoken out against the “disgraceful” portrait of Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart which has been placed in the National Art Gallery. “If that was a portrait of anyone that I knew or loved, I’d be the person leading the petition to have it removed,” Mr Hennessey told Sky News Australia host Erin Molan. “Let’s assume it was done in good intent from the artist and everything else, however, it is her portrait ultimately.”
Her unusual demand comes weeks after the mining magnate made international headlines over her reported distaste of a portrait of her by the artist Vincent Namatjira as part of his collection currently on display at the Canberra gallery.
On Friday, gallery director Bree Pickering told senate estimates the board had accepted a portrait of Ms Rinehart which was gifted by the 70-year-old.
Gina Rinehart has gifted a portrait of herself to the National Gallery of Australia. Picture: Supplied
But it might be a while before the public lays eyes on the mysterious portrait after Ms Pickering revealed the deed of the gift had “some conditions” attached to it.
“Those conditions are currently under negotiation but because of those conditions we haven’t been able to formally accept and accession the work into the collection,” Ms Pickering said.
She declined to confirm what those negotiations were but but they “related to the display” of the portrait.
When questioned by senator Sarah Hanson-Young over whether it was common for people to gift portraits of themselves with a list of conditions, Ms Pickering said it certainly was an unusual request that the gallery was trying to work through.
“We often don’t accept gifts with conditions, we would work with an artist often to see how they’d like their artwork displayed but the sitter does not normally have any say over how the work is hung,” Ms Pickering said.
“I would say we haven’t received any requests to hang the work.
“We’ve received a gift which has been accepted and if we are able to formally accession the work, it would be another cultural object to curate in exhibitions as needed.”
The billionaire recently demanded National Gallery remove her portrait painted by artist Vincent Namatjira.
Ms Pickering said she was aware Ms Rinehart was unhappy with the Namatjira portrait bearing her likeness that will hang as part of the collection until July.
“She seems to have indicated that no, she does not like that portrait,” Ms Pickering told senate estimates.
Ms Hanson-Young continued her questioning about the gifted portrait, stating it seemed unusual that there were demands attached.
“So it’s not that Gina Rinehart is obviously against portraits of herself because she likes this one, she owns this one, she wants this one hung in a particular way that you’re having to negotiate but she clearly doesn’t like the portrait hanging of her in the National Gallery,” Ms Hanson-Young said.
Ms Pickering said the gallery had also not received any requests from “swimmers” or anyone else about the gifted portrait and its attached demands.
It comes as Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann helped organise a group of 20 elite swimmers to campaign for the gallery to remove the portrait of its patron and major sponsor.
The ABC reported that since the widespread controversy of the Namatjira portrait, visitor numbers to the National Gallery are up by 24 per cent.
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