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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