Bonhams Australia offers 168 works from The Lucio s Collection, Sydney
Imants Tillers, The Sacred Fish, 2016. Photo: Bonhams.
SYDNEY
.-Bonhams Australia presents The Lucios Collection in the forthcoming auction LUCIOS: Food, Art & Friendship. Taking place on Sunday 21 March, the auction will present 168 works by many of Australias most respected artists, spanning the restaurants almost 40 years of history and celebrating Lucio and Sally Gallettos contribution to Australias culinary and art landscapes.
Merryn Schriever, Director Bonhams Australia comments: As Lucio once said, the combination of great food, great service and great art on the walls is one of the best dining experiences you can imagine. The magic of Lucios drew a generation of artists who claimed the restaurant their own and where many books were launched and exhibitions opening nights were celebrated. Now Bonhams presents Lucios Collection offering an opportunity to own a work of art from a Colle
Lucio s Italian Restaurant in Sydney is closing after 38 years serving Australia s great artists
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Lucio and Sally Galletto are closing their Paddington restaurant after nearly 40 years of service.
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After 38 years of service, there are just some things restaurateur Lucio Galletto cannot let go.
He is keeping only a few artworks from among his eminent collection, which will be auctioned in March.
But there are also the rituals dating back to his childhood.
Before the restaurant opens, he walks through his Paddington establishment with a hot pan wafting the scent of burnt garlic infused with oil.
The artists may not all like each other but they all liked Lucioâs
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Lucioâs art collection begins before you set foot in the restaurant. A tangle of pipes by Dave Teer sits high on a wall. Francesco Petroloâs metal eggs nest in a paperbark tree. Salvatore Zofreaâs once-controversial ceramic naked woman gazes from a window. By the front door, Garry Sheadâs mosaic has the writer D.H. Lawrence, his wife and kangaroo picnicking in Italy.
Inside you can easily miss Sidney Nolanâs gold-framed sketch, which started the whole thing. Your eye is drawn along sunshine-yellow walls crowded with artworks and curiosities by many of Australiaâs best artists, from late masters such as John Coburn and Charles Blackman to younger stars Luke Sciberras and Joshua Yeldham.
Paddington eatery Lucio s to auction off famous wall art
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It started when Sidney Nolan sketched Ned Kelly s letterbox helmet on the back of a table docket while lunching at Lucio s Restaurant in Paddington.
Filming had just wrapped on the movie
Burke & Wills, and Nolan, employed to paint scenes, was in a celebratory mood. Chuffed by the gesture, Lucio Galletto, who had only the year before moved from Balmain to Paddington, hung the bill on his terrace wall in a gold frame.
Other artists have since left behind tableside sketches or gifted works. Long-time family friend John Olsen went so far as to design the menu cover.