aug 4, 1973 - National Gallery of Australia buys Blue Poles for $1.3 million

Description:

In August 1973 the Australian government, through the National Gallery of Australia’s acting director, James Mollison, bought Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock. The painting cost $1.3 million – the most ever paid for an American painting in the world at that time.

The newly established gallery’s acquisition was greeted with equal parts ridicule and approval by the Australian public and became part of the Whitlam government’s legacy.