Here we give thanks

News that Russian painter Kazimir Malevich's geometric 1916 Suprematist Composition sold for a record $60 million last night at Sotheby's in New York, reminds us what a debt we owe to James Mollison.

As director of the Australian National Gallery from 1971 to 1975, Mollison gathered together the most incredible collection of art from around the world. Thanks to Mollison a trip to Canberra can put you in front of Malevich’s Stroyuschiysya dom [House under construction] 1915-16 painted at the same time as the one sold at Sotheby’s.

This work would be well beyond the budget of any museum in Australia today and hard to think of an institution in the Southern Hemisphere collecting with this conviction now. Mollison pulled off collecting coups like this time after time. Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock, purchased for $1.3 million, is probably the most famous, but others like Warhol’s Double Elvis, a breath taking Tiepolo and hundreds of others are of a similar quality.

Image: Left, Malevich on the Sotherby’s block. Right Malevich’s Stroyuschiysya dom [House under construction] from the collection of the Australian National Gallery