Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\nShe says a staff member instructed her on how to pack the $4,000 canvas, and that she sent it express post, with tracking.<\/p>\n
Australia Post says the hunt for the painting is continuing and that they have apologised to Lockyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went into the Australia Post office to send it. They told me to put this sleeve on it, [that] it\u2019s a new thing to stop the tubes rolling around in transit,\u201d Lockyer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit unsure about it. [They] said \u2018it\u2019s all good\u2019 and show[ed] me the sticky tabs attaching it. So I paid and thought it was safe.<\/p>\n
Bobbi Lockyer\u2019s commissioned artwork that went missing. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a custom commission from a collector who wanted this painting for a long time, and it was for a Christmas gift. It was finished and sent before Christmas, it arrived on Christmas Eve as just a cardboard tube, no painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as it happened, the customer sent me a photo. I was like \u2018oh my God, this is terrible\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking. She had all her family around for Christmas to be given an empty, open cardboard sleeve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockyer says she and the customer made complaints. The customer\u2019s case was closed, with Australia Post saying it was not packaged properly.<\/p>\n
Lockyer kept fighting from her end, sending invoices to prove the painting\u2019s value, and asking them if there was a lost and found. She was told Australia Post would track the route but said she got \u201ccut and paste\u201d responses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they could not offer compensation at this time, and that it was the sender\u2019s fault. They keep closing the case, I keep opening it saying it\u2019s not resolved,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is devastating for not only [my customer] but myself as well. I was told they would chase the route. There\u2019s no evidence they did. I\u2019ve asked if there\u2019s a lost and found. No answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Australia Post spokesperson said in a statement that they \u201chave apologised to the customer and continue to search for the item throughout our network\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia Post\u2019s processing and delivery teams work hard to handle every item with care and deliver them safely, however in a network of this size, things do occasionally go wrong,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Under Australia Post\u2019s policies, general services are suitable for sending items worth up to $100 \u2013 and most of their services cover up to $100 compensation for loss or damage \u2013 but it recommends buying extra cover for more expensive items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just before Christmas, Aboriginal artist Bobbi Lockyer packed up a precious painting she had spent more than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-356676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}