It’s taken a while but The
Age
is finally on the case, reporting for the first time today what The Hun
has been telling its readers for more than a week.

In a reasonably good effort at catch-up, Robin Usher reports on the
conflict-of-interest drama at the National Gallery of Victoria, adding some nice
detail to the saga, including the fact that the subject of the gallery’s
internal investigation, Geoffrey Smith, is holidaying in Tuscany with his new
partner, Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer.

Crikey is told that Smith’s boss, Gerard Vaughan, was forced to cut short a
European holiday in order to return to Melbourne to personally take charge of
the internal investigation into Smith’s conduct.

While he’s looking into the Smith matter, Vaughan should also take a close
look at the NGV’s records of donations of artworks made by former gallery
executives.

He might discover that a former executive donated a large amount of work,
most of it probably not of much value to an art museum but of enormous value to
the executive in terms of the tax deduction he would have been allowed to claim.