Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 2 : French Art Exhibition and Rubin Gift, March - May 1959

·111 just half an hour .-. . , Major ___ ge'ts £100,000 I N that calm, unruffled atmosphere that always exists when really blr money chaoses hands, I w a t c h e d nearly half a million pounds 10 under the hammer yesterday ... on a few square yards of paint and canvas. I'd crowded Into. the elegant aurroundlnllll or SothebJ'a 'showrooms In New Bond-street to watch one ol the most sensational art snlea ol the century, And aaw a quietly• 1poken Auatrallan sheep farmer turn a profit or £100,000 In half an hour. With a Plcaaao that retched only IOO rranca when It waa palntea back In IIIOli, 80-year-old sheep– farmer MaJor Harry de Vahl Rubin, cleaned up £55,000. ev'!'rh~~fd t?~r hlri~e:itor: 1 ~t a llvln11 _!lrtlst. F,hj wile .................... B UIDE lb• ·maJor, • ntllncblnr on her rohlen chair In lhe sale• room, 1At bit flancee, H– year-old Julie l\lullcr. She wa.s a .wattrisa; -now ahe'll be his firth wire. Julie told me nrter• wards : "I don't know much about painting, or about money, I never knew Ht\l'rY was so rich Wl~e;;e W~ll~~r~i::8,&H8'1u119 morning-but I can't aay It makes any difference to us." I shouldn't think SO, Arter all, when a man has 23 houses 6l>rearl ncroaa tllc IVOl'ld, BIHi- Just to ~ncournge Julie In her art studies-pays £4,000 ror a Renoir, what's the oda hurldred thousand? s. ,.,,,,, A ND all 1h01 ru.. about the palnlln1'! It waa quite the alm11lest nude rve ever seen , . , a ~g~;'ll"ns 0 Wfi1t~.Fr:flna~":n~ her nrms mast modestly roldeu In front or her l was Just about geiUntr the rcellnK or lhlntlll In Lhl~ wonderful world– wntchlng the bid• go up by thousand~ - when some– bacl_v broke llrn 1111cll. pt~~ ~r!'.iMJt'i,~ic_£e ror a profit! coo11,. "'"'· ly, M • i• r H,rr, de V,hl R 11 • i ft w1tcltes with his 1;,.....,, /ulie Mullet, "tlte blddi•I for /,is ,i<,sso nude (loll) 1oes up ,nd up - I o £55,000.