Art Auction For Charles Blackman Trebles Expectations: Will Pay For Artists Care For 'Rest Of His Life'

by  SIMON THOMSEN 

Painter Charles Blackman. Photo Patrick Riviere/Getty

A fundraising art auction for Charles Blackman, one of Australia’s greatest living artists, has raised $900,000, three times more than expectations.

Blackman, 85, has Korsakoff’s syndrome, a form of dementia caused by alcoholism, and requires 24-hour care at his rented Sydney home.

On Tuesday, Melbourne’s Mossgreen gallery sold the last 400 works Blackman owned, hoping to raise $300,000, but Mossgreen managing director Paul Sumner said the response was so overwhelming from bidders that the artist would now have his healthcare costs covered for the rest of his life.

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