Now that the National Gallery of Victoria is taking “very seriously”
the conflict of interest controversy surrounding senior curator
Geoffrey Smith, it should look at this link on the website of the Melbourne City Council for yet another example of Smith conflicted interests.

The council’s website reveals that Smith is a member of the council’s
acquisitions panel for contemporary art. It is now a matter of public
record that Smith is also the boyfriend of Melbourne’s Deputy Lord
Mayor Gary Singer.

It’s not unusual for museum curators to hold such committee positions,
however there is a problem in this case in the light of Smith’s
relationship with Singer.

In documents filed in the Victorian Supreme Court, Smith’s ex-boyfriend
Robert Gould alleges that Smith and Singer became lovers years before
Smith and Gould split up in 2004. Smith and Gould are slugging it out
in the Victorian Supreme Court for control of valuable artworks they
collected during their fourteen-year relationship

In a separate case, Gould was ordered to return to Singer a $200,000 Arthur Boyd painting.