{"id":629785,"date":"2026-10-13T23:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629785\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:30:12","slug":"nt-museum-in-confidential-talks-with-musee-dorsay-as-darwin-gallerys-future-still-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629785\/","title":{"rendered":"NT museum in confidential talks with Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay as Darwin gallery’s future still uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is in confidential negotiations to try to bring world-renowned French masterpieces to Darwin, but it all hinges on one thing.<\/p>\n

A prestigious new purpose-built art gallery is under construction in the NT capital’s central business district, but the NT government is also considering other options for the building’s use.<\/p>\n

The Country Liberal Party (CLP) government launched a competitive tender process to seek a future operator for the State Square building<\/a> last year, after concerns about the cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Adam Worrall says MAGNT is in “active negotiations with some of the world’s leading museums and galleries”. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

While MAGNT was originally offered the run of the new gallery<\/a> by the previous Labor government, it has had to submit its own bid to try to secure its place as the venue’s operator.<\/p>\n

MAGNT director Adam Worrall said future exhibitions of European works would only be seen by NT audiences if the government-run art gallery went ahead as originally planned.<\/p>\n

“MAGNT is in active negotiations with some of the world’s leading museums and galleries, including Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay and other French lenders, to bring international-standard exhibitions directly to Darwin,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“While these high-level discussions require strict confidentiality, the realisation of this exhibition program hinges on securing venue certainty through the current State Square expression of interest (EOI) process.<\/p>\n

\"Monet's<\/p>\n

Claude Monet’s\u00a0Waterlily Pond, Pink Harmony is one of the works that could be on display in Darwin if the deal goes ahead. (Supplied: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

“Should MAGNT be successful in its proposal for the State Square precinct, the upcoming exhibition calendar promises to inject significant energy, visitation, and vibrancy into the Northern Territory’s cultural and economic landscape.”<\/p>\n

The Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay in Paris is famed for its vast collection of impressionist and post-impressionist period European masterworks by artists including Monet, Renoir and van Gogh.<\/p>\n

A range of proposals<\/p>\n

The NT government previously said a decision on the building’s future would be made by mid-2026<\/a>, but the process is yet to be resolved.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson said the government was “progressing a fair and competitive two-stage EOI process to determine the future use” of the State Square building.<\/p>\n

“A cross-agency task force is overseeing the process to ensure all proposals are rigorously and consistently assessed,” they said.<\/p>\n

“As the EOI process is still underway, it would be inappropriate to comment on individual proposals or speculate on potential outcomes.<\/p>\n

\"Green<\/p>\n

The NT government says various organisations are being considered for the new building. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“A range of proposals were invited through the EOI process and are being considered on their merits.<\/p>\n

“Until that process concludes, the government won’t speculate on the future use of the building.”<\/p>\n

Among the other organisations confirmed to have submitted an EOI for the building is tourism industry body Tourism Top End, which runs an existing visitor centre nearby.<\/p>\n

‘Stop playing games’<\/p>\n

Shadow Arts Minister Chansey Paech urged the CLP government to “hand over the State Square gallery for its intended purpose”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chansey Paech says the government should “get on with opening it as a gallery”. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)<\/p>\n

“It’s a state-of-the-art gallery that was built to bring in thousands of tourists and visitation each and every year, and to showcase First Nations culture and cultures from all over the world,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are seeing the CLP government’s resistance to anything in the arts and culture space, and this is another demonstration of them sitting on their hands.”<\/p>\n

\"Vincent<\/p>\n

A 1887 self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh previously on loan to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from the Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay. (Supplied: National Gallery of Australia)<\/p>\n

Mr Paech was a member of the previous NT government that commissioned the State Square gallery, with the CLP critical of Labor for not better budgeting its future operational costs.<\/p>\n

“Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we could’ve done more in the time, then yeah, we could’ve, but look, we were able to secure and develop what is now a premiere State Square gallery.<\/p>\n

“Now we need the CLP to stop playing games and to get on with opening it as a gallery.”<\/p>\n

The NT government spokesperson said the building’s construction was due to be finalised by the end of October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is in confidential negotiations to try to bring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,308912,1568,501,156,308915,175998,308911,111,139,69,308913,87980,308914],"class_list":["post-629785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-clp","tag-construction","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-french-masters","tag-musee-dorsay","tag-museum-and-art-gallery-of-the-northern-territory","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-state-square","tag-tender","tag-tourism-top-end"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}