Art Leven First Nations And Australian Fine Art Auction Opens This Week

Featuring the collection of Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE

Sydney, Australia: Art Leven, Sydney’s leading First Nations-focused gallery, will this week open its First Nations and Australian Fine Art Auction and Exhibition, headlined by the private collection of the late Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE. The accompanying exhibition will open at Art Leven’s new gallery at 104 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo, running from 15–19 May, with the live auction taking place on Tuesday 19 May 2026 at Artspace. The auction is now online and includes approximately 115 artworks by leading First Nations and Australian artists.

Tracing Dame Marie Bashir and Sir Nicholas Shehadie’s personal journeys as collectors and advocates for First Nations art, the collection is shaped by decades of travel to remote art centres and close relationships with artists. The auction and exhibition present 79 artworks from their private collection, paying tribute to their years of collecting throughout the 1990s. Works by 105 leading Indigenous and Australian artists are included, among them Balang John Mawurndjul AM, Arthur Boyd, Robert Campbell Jr, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Makinti Napangka, Ginger Riley, Tony Tuckson, Albert Namatjira, Garry Shead, Queenie McKenzie and Rover Thomas Joolama.

Established in 1981, Art Leven has evolved over four decades through close collaboration with the artists and communities it represents. While its name, location, and scale have changed, the gallery’s mission has remained constant: to champion artists with integrity and present First Nations art in a thoughtful and informed context. The move to Woolloomooloo reflects a deepening of that commitment. The new multi-level gallery has been purpose-built to support focused exhibitions and foster closer engagement with artists’ practices.

Presented publicly for the first time, the auction and exhibition pays tribute not to the remarkable public life of Bashir and Shehadie, but to the personal journeys they took across Australia — often chartering small bi-engine planes with fellow collectors Elizabeth Laverty and Anne Lewis to reach remote art centres across the country. Together, they came to represent a generation of influential female collectors who helped introduce Aboriginal art to broader audiences during a formative period in the Australian art market.

Mirri Leven, Director of Art Leven, said: “With all that Dame Marie Bashir accomplished — as Governor of New South Wales, medical professor, musician, and lifelong community advocate — she still found time to be deeply engaged with the lives of Indigenous artists and the power of their work. I cannot think of a more fitting collection to be presenting at our Woolloomooloo gallery.”

“She came on the art tours to ‘put her finger on the pulse of the nation. Her compassion, sincerity and informed regard for First Nations people, culture and art was both reassuring and uplifting at a time when cross-cultural engagement was rare,” said Helen Read, Nurse, Pilot and Director Palya Art (then Didgeri Air Art Tours).

The Bashir collection reveals not only the artworks themselves, but the deep relationships formed with the artists who created them. Accompanying archival material — including early exhibition catalogues, handwritten notes, price lists from pioneering galleries of the 1990s, and faxed correspondence documenting the early days of the Indigenous art market — illustrates the networks and relationships that brought First Nations art to wider public attention.

Following the successful introduction of Priority Bidding in Art Leven’s November 2025 auction, the initiative returns for this sale. Collectors who register for Priority Bidding 48 hours prior to the auction will receive a 10% discount on the buyer’s premium, rewarding early engagement with the auction.

Bashir and Shehadie’s family selected Mirri Leven from Art Leven to steward the auction, reflecting the longstanding relationships she has cultivated with First Nations artists and their families. The auction has been curated around the collectors’ journey of discovery and stewardship, rather than simply presenting blue chip works in isolation.

The auction and exhibition reflect Art Leven’s continued commitment to presenting First Nations art with care, depth and respect for the artists and practices at its heart.

Notes:

About Art Leven

Art Leven (formerly Cooee Art) was established in Sydney in 1981 and is one of the longest-running galleries dedicated to First Nations art. The gallery works closely with artists and art centres across the continent, presenting exhibitions, auctions and research that place First Nations art within a serious curatorial and cultural context.

KEY DETAILS

First Nations and Australian Fine Art Auction and Exhibition
Featuring the Collection of Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE

Vernissage Event
Thursday 14 May 5–8pm
Auction Viewing: Friday 15 - Tuesday 19 May 10am–6pm daily
Live Auction: Tuesday 19 May 6–8pm

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