In 1978, Edmund Capon catapulted from being an assistant keeper in a London museum to become the Art Gallery of NSW's longest and most influential director. He died after a long battle with cancer.
The acquisition depleted the gallery's meagre acquisition funds spurring Mr Capon to establish a foundation to purchase future artworks.
That plan subsequently led to numerous spectacular acquisitions, chiefly in 2008 Paul Cezanne's Banks of the Marne for $16 million from the Gallery's largest fundraising campaign to that date. The purchase at auction of Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly painting First-class Marksman for $5.6 million in 2010 set a new high watermark for Australian art at auction — it remains unbroken.
Capon brought his love of Asian art to AGNSW, building a collection of antiquities from Australia's near neighbours and a wing to house them. Akin to other Australian art museums at the time, thorough research was not routinely undertaken prior to purchases and items subsequently found to have been looted have in recent years been returned to their countries of origin.
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