First-class marksman, 1946 (ripolin enamel on hardboard) by Sir Sidney Nolan (1917-92) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
A painting of the infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly has become the country's most expensive piece of artwork ever sold at auction.
First-class marksman, painted in 1946 by the renowned Australian artist Sidney Nolan sold for $A5.4million (£3.2m) in March to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with funds provided by the Gleeson O’Keefe Foundation.
The painting shows the legendary outlaw, wearing his signature body armour including the iron helmet and its narrow eye slit, standing with his rifle raised on a dusty road in the Australian bush.
Together with Nolan's 26 paintings of Ned Kelly in the National Gallery of Australia, Bridgeman can now offer exclusive global access to high quality reproductions of many of the Ned Kelly paintings as well as manage copyright clearence on behalf of the Sidney Nolan Trust.
The artwork was put up for auction by Steve Vizard's Vizard Foundation, which has owned it for 18 years. The sale broke the previous record priceof $3.48m (£1.67m), set in 2007, for a work by the Australian artist Brett Whiteley.