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Myriam RobinColumnist
Apr 20, 2022 –
Speaking of blink-and-you-missed-it court cases, it took Deloitte less than a month to conclude its action against former director Paul Quill. He’s agreed to repay $3.1 million to the firm, hopefully from the proceeds of the artworks, furniture, fine watches and the like his old employer claims he purchased with fraudulent expense claims.
Deloitte director Paul Quill amassed quite the collection. Pity it’s all going in a firesale.
Quill had an eye (if not a wallet) for quality. The full list of bounty filed in the Federal Court reveals a smorgasbord of works from some of Australia’s best-known contemporary artists. Including multiple paintings by economist-turned-artist Sam Leach, who won the Archibald Prize in 2010 for a portrait of Tim Minchin.
Before going full-time with his hobby, Leach worked for 12 years at the Australian Tax Office, where, his bio notes, he “laboured under the yoke of figures, calculations and pie charts”. So while the court orders require all the works to be sold “as soon as is practicable”, it wouldn’t be unfitting for Deloitte to keep a few of his pieces around its offices.
But even if the consultancy isn’t keen on any reminders of the unfortunate and embarrassing affair, no doubt the court-ordered firesale will draw keen interest within the art world. Not least for the presence of a work by extraordinarily popular Chinese Australian artist Lindy Lee.
She’s presently working on a gargantuan $14 million sculpture, titled Ouroboros, for the National Gallery of Australia. It’s the most expensive acquisition in the gallery’s history, even pricier than the inflation-adjusted $12.6 million paid for Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles.
Of course, Deloitte aren’t slouches when it comes to modern art either. The consultancy recently contracted curator Art Pharmacy to fit out its Collins Street Melbourne offices with a wide range of locally produced pieces. None of which, it seems, much caught Quill’s eye.
Despite working in said office, he didn’t add a single piece from any of its 35 featured artists into his burgeoning private collection.
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