 |
|
|
A painting of the infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly has become the country's most expensive piece of artwork ever sold at auction.
First Class Marksman, painted in 1946 by the renowned Australian artist Sidney Nolan sold for $A5.4million (£3.2m)on Thursday night to an unknown bidder
The painting shows the legendary outlaw, wearing his signature body armour including the iron helmet and its narrow eye slit, standing with his rifle raised on a dusty road in the Australian bush.
It is believed to be the only one of Nolan's 27 paintings of Ned Kelly that is not in the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra.
The NGA recently announced a new gallery for the Kelly collection - its most popular Australian attraction. But it is unclear whether the NGA was the successful bidder.
Marie Geissler, a spokesman for the auction house Menzies Art Brands, said the 'vigorous' bidding was between two phone bidders. "Nobody in the room was actually bidding. It was two phone bidders and it was quite contested," Ms Geissler told ABC news.
"We couldn't believe it when it went over the $5 million mark, but there you go. A great result for Australian art ," she said.
"The Kelly series is probably the most important Australian series of work of Nolan's at the National Gallery, so everybody wanted to own this painting," she said. "I would imagine even the National Gallery."
The artwork was put up for auction by Steve Vizard's Vizard Foundation, which has owned it for 18 years.
It broke the previous record of $3.48m (£1.67m), set in 2007, for a work by the Australian artist Brett Whiteley.
Anne Barrowclough, Sydney |
|
|
|
|
