The Lismore City Council is being asked to formally back a fundraising effort to keep the $1 million Hannah Cabinet at the Lismore Regional Gallery on permanent display.
The cabinet, created by world-class master craftsman Geoff Hannah over six years, will be on display for 22 months, after which the Gallery will have the opportunity to purchase it as a piece of artwork for $1 million.
But to do so, the Gallery needs the council to support it using the Art Gallery Gift Account, which is registered as a tax deductible gift recipient with the Australian Taxation Office.
The Hannah Cabinet is the largest and most complex of Mr Hannah’s work.
He also has major works located in such places as the Governor General’s residence in Canberra, the Queens Coach in London, and at the headquarters of a major international trading company in Antwerp, Beligium.
A valuation has been carried out by Meredith Hinchliffe, an approved valuer on the Department of Communications and the Arts Cultural Gifts Program list.
The valuation of the cabinet is $1 million.
If the funds can be raised during the time the cabinet is on display, the Regional Art Gallery will be able to purchase the cabinet and be part of the permanent collection.
Can it be paid for with the $1M cannabis crop just recently seized? Or perhaps the crop can be sold to pay for the cabinet? Makes sense. Just saying.
If they do end up aquiring it, I hope it lives on the top floor, incase it floods again.
There’s no doubt that cabinet is an extraordinary piece of work. But it just doesn’t belong here. In style and execution it does not resonate with anything about our local society. It belongs in surroundings where the royal and wealthy feel free to pay $700m for a painting, not here in Lismore where $1m represents a huge commitment to our society.
Even the value that Geoff Hannah places on his own time (it’s not hard to work out his hourly rate) is way out of whack with what anybody else in this area would consider their time worth. Making this cabinet available to Lismore – at that price, anyway – is not an act of benevolence, it’s an attempt to set up a comfortable requirement.
I’m sure there are many parts of the world where that asking price would be considered reasonable, but this is not one of them.
This cabinet is in the top of its class and will attract tourists and Art lovers to Lismore. We lost the Margaret Olley collection, let’s not be lazy enough to lose this. I am happy to donate.Get behind this Lismore City council. This is an investment as well as a beautiful asset.