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Art Gallery of New South Wales is the most important public art gallery in Sydney and the fourth biggest in Australia. It is one of the main features of The Domain. It is an Arts and Crafts style building. The names of old grand masters are emblazoned on the front façade.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Domain, Sydney
Author: Siegfried Nugent (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
The history of the Art Gallery of New South Wales goes back to a public meeting held on 24 April, 1871, when the idea to establish an academy of art was brought up, so as to promote the fine arts through lectures, art classes and regular exhibitions. This led to the founding of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1880. Three years later, it changed its name to the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, only to revert to its original name in 1958.
The present building of the Art Gallery of New South Wales was completed in 1897. It was designed by colonial architect Walter Liberty Vernon. Its first two picture galleries opened to the public that year, followed by another two in 1899. Then a watercolour gallery was added in 1901 followed by the Grand Oval Library in 1902. In 1970 the Captain Cook wing was opened to the public as part of the Captain Cook Bicentenary celebrations, and increased the racking space of the gallery by 1.25 linear kilometers.
In 1988, another phase of extension, this time to coincide with the Bicentenary celebration of the founding of Australia, doubled the size of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. As with the 1970 extension, it was undertaken by Government architect Andrew Andersons. Most recently, a new Asian Arts wing opened on 23 October, 2007.
An art theft took place at the Gallery on 10 June 2007. A Cavalier (Self Portrait), a 17th century piece by Frans van Mieris valued at A$1.4 million was somehow removed from the wall even in a midst of a crowd of 6,000. Although deemed difficult to sell within Australia, the piece has not resurfaced.
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