‘The man with the cheque who paid for Blue Poles’ | Canberra Times

Blue Poles in the New York apartment of then owner Ben Heller, 1973
(There’s a zillion pix at Google of it in the National Gallery)

The man with the cheque who paid for Blue Poles. [Web Archive version]

This is a great story about Ted Crossing (99), the bloke that handed over the cheque in 1973 to pay for what is now probably Australia’s most famous painting — “Blue Poles” by Jackson Pollock.
I was in London when the purchase was made but and I remember the huge kerfuffle over it. Only a prime minister with the brave taste of Gough Whitlam could have done it. And thank goodness he did, for now it’s much loved, and Aussies love to tell themselves that we got a great deal!
Remember the Opera House was controversial when built as the budget blew out. Now imagine Oz without the Opera House. Or imagine Canberra without Blue Poles?  You can’t, it’s that iconic.
We paid AUS$1.3 million for it in 1973, at the time a record for an American painting. It’s now valued at “over” $US 350 million a compound annual gain of 13%, handily beating inflation or any other investment.  Not that we’d ever sell it. There would be uproar.
I visited Blue Poles at the National Gallery in Canberra as soon as I got home in 1975, and drop by to check it out every time I’m back. The Gallery is a lovely place. And Blue Poles is wonderful!
On ‘yer Gough!
[Canberra’s National Arboretum is great too, especially the Bonsai collection]