When the Queen opened the National Gallery of Australia 30 years ago, few people would have imagined that by now it would have a collection valued at $4.7 billion.
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The gallery's treasures, which include globally significant pieces, make up the most valuable art collection in Australia, which easily eclipse the holdings of the nation's far older galleries.
The NGA celebrated its 30th birthday yesterday. Its director, Ron Radford, said it was the world's youngest national gallery when it opened and remains so.
Among its most remarkable pieces is Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles, which the gallery was widely criticised for buying for the princely sum of about $1 million in the 1970s. Dr Radford said the work was now valued at nearly $200 million.
''Outside of America we have probably the finest collections of American art from the golden period of the 1940s to the 1980s, when it was the most dynamic art in the world,'' he said. ''Blue Poles is still the centrepiece of that collection and remains our most famous and now most popular painting.''
When the gallery was built, it was intended to be a fiercely modern building. Its planning, design and construction took 14 years and it was created with a brief of preserving and displaying art to the Australian community.
Then prime minister John Gorton said he wanted it to leave a special mark on the national landscape. ''It is very important that the design of the gallery should reflect the most modern thinking of the present day, that it should be particular to Australia and be an expression of the national character,'' he said.
The gallery has been led by four directors, from founding director James Mollison, to Betty Churcher, Brian Kennedy and now Dr Radford. Chairmen include L. Gordon Darling, Gough Whitlam, Lionel Bowen, Kerry Stokes, Harold Mitchell, Rupert Myer and today Tim Fairfax.
Dr Radford said the gallery had more than 165,000 works of art, but he would not reveal a favourite piece.
''As a father to 165,000 children I don't have a favourite - I love them all equally and that is the way it has to be,'' he said.
Dr Radford said the gallery had big plans for Canberra's centenary year, including the blockbuster Toulouse-Lautrec Paris and the Moulin Rouge exhibition.
''It has been estimated that the National Gallery's seven blockbuster shows of the past seven years have brought $300 million to the local economy,'' Dr Radford said.
''Our Masterpieces from Paris exhibition of 2010 still holds the national record for art exhibition attendance, with nearly 500,000 visitors in four months,'' he said.
''And it is true that of the top 15 best-attended art exhibitions in Australia's history, five were held at the National Gallery of Australia''.
