Leading First Nations-focused gallery Art Leven has announced a First Nations and Australian Fine Art Auction, featuring the collection of Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE, planned for May 19.
An accompanying exhibition will be presented at Art Leven's new gallery at 104 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo, running May 15-19.
Live online from May 2, the auction marks a significant moment for the gallery following its relocation from Redfern to its new three-storey heritage premises, and will include approximately 115 artworks by leading First Nations and Australian artists.
Tracing the personal journeys of the late Dame Marie and Sir Nicholas - as both collectors and advocates for First Nations art - the collection is shaped by decades of travel to remote art centres, close relationships with artists, and Bashir's deep commitment to Indigenous health and community.
The auction and accompanying exhibition will feature 79 artworks from Bashir and Shehadie's private art collection, paying tribute to the duo's seminal years of collecting and travels throughout the 1990s.
A rich articulation of First Nations art spanning vast Country, the auction will present works by 105 leading Indigenous and Australian artists including Balang John Mawurndjul AM, Arthur Boyd, Robert Campbell Jr, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Makinti Napangka, Ginger Riley, Tony Tuckson, Albert Namatjira, Garry Shead, Queenie McKenzie and Rover Thomas Joolama.
Presented publicly for the first time, the auction and exhibition pays tribute to the journeys Bashir and Shehadie took across Australia, often undertaken with fellow collectors and advocates Elizabeth Laverty and Anne Lewis.
The group would charter small bi-engine planes to reach remote art centres across the country. Together, Bashir, Laverty and Lewis came to represent a generation of influential female collectors who helped introduce Aboriginal art to broader audiences in Australia during a formative period in the art market.
Art Leven's First Nations and Australian Fine Art Auction has been curated around the collectors journey of discovery and stewardship rather than focusing simply on blue chip works.
Bashir and Shehadie's family selected Mirri Leven, Art Leven director, to steward the auction, reflecting the longstanding relationships she has cultivated with First Nations artists and their families over the years.
The Bashir collection reveals not only the artworks themselves, but the deep relationships formed with the artists who created them. Accompanying archival material - including early exhibition catalogues, handwritten notes, price lists from pioneering galleries of the 1990s, and faxed correspondence documenting the early days of the Indigenous art market - illustrates the networks and relationships that brought First Nations art to wider public attention.
"With all that Dame Marie Bashir accomplished - as Governor of New South Wales, medical professor, musician, and lifelong community advocate - she still found time to be deeply engaged with the lives of Indigenous artists and the power of their work," Leven said.
"I can not think of a more fitting collection to launch our new location in Woolloomooloo.
"She came on the art tours to 'put her finger on the pulse of the nation,'" Helen Read, Nurse, Pilot and Director Palta Art (then Didgeri Air Art Tours).
"Her compassion, sincerity and informed regard for First Nations people, culture and art was both reassuring and uplifting at a time when cross-cultural engagement was rare."
Following the successful introduction of Priority Bidding in Art Leven's November 2025 auction, the initiative will return for this sale.
Collectors who register for Priority Bidding 48 hours prior to the auction will receive a 10 per cent discount on the buyer's premium, rewarding early engagement with the auction.
The auction and exhibition reflect Art Leven's continued commitment to presenting First Nations art with care, depth and respect for the artists and practices at its heart.
Art Leven (formerly Cooee Art) was established in Sydney in 1981 and is one of the longest-running galleries dedicated to First Nations art.
The gallery works closely with artists and art centres across the continent, presenting exhibitions, auctions and research that place First Nations art within a serious curatorial and cultural context.
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