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Tasmanian Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell. |
Sothebys defends Aboriginal stance and withdraws Tasmanian works
Friday, 21 August 2009
By Paul Carter
NATIONAL, August 26, 2009: Sothebys auction house has defended its respect for Aboriginal Australians after withdrawing two controversial busts from sale.
Sothebys initially ignored calls from Aboriginal activists to pull the 1836 busts of Tasmanian Aboriginal leaders Woureddy and his wife Truganini.
The activists, led by lawyer Michael Mansell, say the busts perpetuate the racist myth that Truganini was the last "full-blood" Tasmanian Aboriginal person.
The myth they say denies the existence of the state's continuing Indigenous community, after their population was reduced from thousands to a few hundred in what is described as an attempted genocide by colonisers.
The busts' vendor decided just hours before the auction in Melbourne on Monday night to withdraw them from sale.
Sotheby's spokeswoman Anne Wall on Tuesday said: "Sothebys always acts with respect for Indigenous Australians".
"These are one of multiple sets of important sculptures that have been on display for decades in numerous institutions," she said.
"They have been widely documented and photographed in multiple publications and most recently these were on display at the opening of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra."
Ms Wall declined to say why the busts were withdrawn or if they would again be offered for sale.
Two Tasmanian Aboriginal activists went to Melbourne before the auction to ask for the 75cm tall, patinated plaster busts by Benjamin Law to be given to them.
But their owner, a descendant of Hobart convict turned businessman Judah Solomon, decided to keep the busts and expected to fetch up to $700,000 at the Sothebys auction.
Mr Mansell now wants laws forcing museums to hand culturally sensitive items back to Aboriginal people.
"Sothebys decision to withdraw the busts of Woureddy and Truganini from sale gives us breathing space," Mr Mansell said in a statement.
"It won't be long before the busts are sold and lost to Aboriginal people again because we can only make a moral claim."
Mr Mansell wants Tasmania to buy the busts and set up an Aboriginal cultural centre where images and objects for continuity of culture and identity can be held.
"Not all collections about Aborigines need to be given up by institutions," he said.
"We seek items that should not be out of Aboriginal hands such as images of our dead, baskets and rock carvings.
"It is offensive to display images of the dead inappropriately (for example, for sale at a Sothebys auction)." - AAP
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