privatise heritage: Boyd made slips from public hands (Auction!) [AU]

Victorians urged to act as house that Boyd made slips from public hands
Email Print Normal font Large font Gabriella Coslovich
June 26, 2007


Design classic: A view of the Walsh Street, South Yarra, house by Robin 
Boyd.
Photo: Angela Wylie

IF IT were a masterpiece on canvas by John Brack, it would send art 
buyers into a spin, fetch more than $3 million at auction, and have the 
public crying foul over its loss to private hands.

But this modernist masterpiece in bricks, mortar and exposed beams, 
designed by renowned Melbourne architect Robin Boyd and currently in 
public hands, will be sold at auction next month — and the only cries of 
protest so far are from architects.

The property in Walsh Street, South Yarra, which Boyd built for his 
family in 1958, will be auctioned on Saturday, July 21, by Bennison 
Mackinnon Carmichael and is expected to fetch more than $2.8 million.

Ironically, the property was bought for the Victorian public less than 
three years ago, when the architect's widow, Patricia, signalled she 
would have to sell. Under the auspices of the National Trust, the Robin 
Boyd Foundation was set up to buy the property, which it did for the sum 
of $2.4 million in December 2004.

cont'd....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/victorians-urged-to-act-as-house-that-boyd-made-slips-from-publichands/2007/06/25/1182623823218.html