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.