Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has demanded the National Gallery of Australia remove a portrait of her from an exhibition by Archibald Prize-winning Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira.
The billionaire mining mogul directly approached NGA director Nick Mitzevich and NGA chair Ryan Stokes in April to press for the portrait’s removal.
There have since been more than a dozen complaints to the gallery from associates of her company, Hancock Prospecting, which have accused the NGA of “doing the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party” by displaying her image in an unflattering way.
Rinehart recently praised the Chinese government for “doing a better job than our government”, and it is unclear what the “bidding” referred to.
Complaints have also come from athletes she sponsors, according to sources who are familiar with the correspondence but who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the issue.
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