As the National Art School approaches its centenary on the site of Sydney’s old Darlinghurst Gaol, it has announced an amnesty. At least 50 paintings, sculptures and other works from the school’s collection have “gone missing”, says Deborah Beck, the archivist and collections manager.was originally built to house the state’s most notorious criminals – including bushrangers Frank Gardiner and “Captain Moonlite”.
Suspicion falls on former students and staff who may have “borrowed” a favourite piece, forgetting to return it. Most of the missing artworks aren’t worth much in monetary terms, Beck says. Their value lies primarily in their connection to the school. National Art School curator Deborah Beck with Anita Aarons’ sculpture Portrait bust of a woman 1939, which was returned to the school in 2015 after it was removed sometime in the 1980s. It is now on display in the NAS Archive and Collection rooms.“People took things because they were getting damaged, including sculptures from the 1920s,” Beck says. “Some were returned once the school had a safe, climate-controlled collection area; others are still missing.
She’s also keen to recover items from the campus’ jail days , citing the 19th century wooden clamp a former student returned in 2008. He’d taken it from the warder’s cottage in the 1940s. Then there’s the mysterious case of the missing prison bells. “There’s only one left,” Beck says. “At least five other bells – which governed the prison schedule – have disappeared since the 1970s.”Portrait of a Girl with Pre-Raphaelite HairNow in her 90s, former gallery owner Elinor Wrobel remembers buying the “striking black-and-white drawing” at auction. After her husband, Fred, died, she gave it to Noel Slarke, then principal of East Sydney Technical College .
In their dreams. A true artist doesn't seek recognition