EARTH'S CREATION - Why did i sell?

Selling Earth’s Creation for $2 million. 'Earth's Creation' by Emily Kame Kngwarreye no longer belongs to Mbantua Gallery. On November 16th, 2017 it was sold at auction for $2,000,000!

This was disappointing for many reasons. Before the auction the independent valuations put the value of the painting between $3-4M. Valuations are not guarantees, but Earth’s Creation had also been exhibited in the Venice Art Biennale after those valuations had been made so I thought it reasonable that the painting had the potential of reaching $3 million, if not $4 million!

But why did I still want to sell.....

I had been thinking of the sale of Earth’s Creation for a year or two before it went to auction. During this time, I had many thoughts about what I wanted to do with the proceeds of the sale. Eventually I decided on 3 sizeable donations to charities, but first the business debts had to be paid off. 

1. The Mbantua Foundation - The Mbantua Foundation was put together a number of years ago to aid the under privileged aboriginal people here in central Australia. 

2. Ars Musica - Ars Musica is the dream and creation of a very good friend of mine, Reverend Arthur Bridge AM of Sydney. On many occasions over the years he and one of his Board members, (an ex Chair of the Sydney Opera House), travelled with me on various art trips to Utopia. It is a foundation set up to award scholarships to kids who have musical/theatrical talents but lack financial capacity to pursue those talents.

3. The third donation was to be to an as yet undecided Children’s Cancer charity. My heart always goes out to kids who have cancer.

Mbantua Gallery had, at that time, a business debt of just under $3 million.This is almost entirely on the acquisition of artworks. So my disappointment in the $2 million sale figure is that now none of these donations are able to happen.

From the perspective of the actual painting – I was personally very disappointed that it didn’t remain in Australia. I was certainly supportive of Adrian Newstead obtaining an export permit, and my reasoning for this was purely that I hoped it would increase bidding, which hopefully would then have enabled me to accomplish my goals as outlined above. 

                             

Earth’s Creation is a magnificent work in itself – and when the cultural background and life of Emily is factored in, it really should be sitting in the National Gallery of Australia or at the very least, a State Gallery.

Putting aside my personal wants and desires, I am disappointed that those who have the financial capacity and love of Australian art and heritage, didn’t bid and secure it for Australia. Or that a government didn’t have some involvement to secure it, because this particular painting is so iconic to Australia. I say this emphasizing the word 'disappointment', because maybe it is just a few of us who treasure the importance of the painting.

So why did I allow it to be “on the market” at $2 million?

I was certainly hoping that some good bidding would get underway! If I had have known that $2 million was going to be the last bid, I probably would not have done so!

Even though i was hoping for a higher bid, I still had the responsibility to my 20+ staff members at the time and also to a very large team of artists. That responsibility is to ensure that Mbantua Gallery continues to support, encourage and promote the art of the Utopia region. In this unstable economic climate, reducing debt in the business was the smart thing to do to enable us to keep our responsibilities. If I had kept the painting, I would have then had to continue to pay out our $20,000 insurance premium per annum, and service the bank interest for a number of years to come.

Mbantua Gallery has downsized its space over the last few years which has left me no room to display it. It shouldn’t be locked up in storage but needs to be made available for public viewing.

Lastly, it was time to be in someone else’s hands. Someone who hopefully will ensure that it is appreciated to the utmost. So congratulations to Tim Olsen, the new owner.

I’ve really enjoyed the experience and the ride of owning Earth’s Creation. 100% of the comments that have been made to me personally over the 10 years that we have owned it have been extremely positive. So thank you to everyone who appreciated us for “having a go”.

Once again, I thank everyone who has supported myself and my gallery over the years. It is my intention to continue to work with and to encourage the artists of Utopia for many years to come – God willing.