NT museum in secret talks over European masterworks — but there's a catch

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is in confidential negotiations to try to bring world-renowned French masterpieces to Darwin, but it all hinges on one thing.

A prestigious new purpose-built art gallery is under construction in the NT capital's central business district, but the NT government is also considering other options for the building's use.

The Country Liberal Party (CLP) government launched a competitive tender process to seek a future operator for the State Square building last year, after concerns about the cost to taxpayers.

While MAGNT was originally offered the run of the new gallery by the previous Labor government, it has had to submit its own bid to try to secure its place as the venue's operator.

MAGNT director Adam Worrall said future exhibitions of European works would only be seen by NT audiences if the government-run art gallery went ahead as originally planned.

"MAGNT is in active negotiations with some of the world's leading museums and galleries, including Musée d'Orsay and other French lenders, to bring international-standard exhibitions directly to Darwin," he said in a statement.

"While these high-level discussions require strict confidentiality, the realisation of this exhibition program hinges on securing venue certainty through the current State Square expression of interest (EOI) process.

"Should MAGNT be successful in its proposal for the State Square precinct, the upcoming exhibition calendar promises to inject significant energy, visitation, and vibrancy into the Northern Territory's cultural and economic landscape."

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris is famed for its vast collection of impressionist and post-impressionist period European masterworks by artists including Monet, Renoir and van Gogh.

A range of proposals

The NT government previously said a decision on the building's future would be made by mid-2026, but the process is yet to be resolved.

In a statement, a spokesperson said the government was "progressing a fair and competitive two-stage EOI process to determine the future use" of the State Square building.

"A cross-agency task force is overseeing the process to ensure all proposals are rigorously and consistently assessed," they said.

"As the EOI process is still underway, it would be inappropriate to comment on individual proposals or speculate on potential outcomes.

"A range of proposals were invited through the EOI process and are being considered on their merits.

Among the other organisations confirmed to have submitted an EOI for the building is tourism industry body Tourism Top End, which runs an existing visitor centre nearby.

'Stop playing games'

Shadow Arts Minister Chansey Paech urged the CLP government to "hand over the State Square gallery for its intended purpose".

"It's a state-of-the-art gallery that was built to bring in thousands of tourists and visitation each and every year, and to showcase First Nations culture and cultures from all over the world," he said.

"We are seeing the CLP government's resistance to anything in the arts and culture space, and this is another demonstration of them sitting on their hands."

Mr Paech was a member of the previous NT government that commissioned the State Square gallery, with the CLP critical of Labor for not better budgeting its future operational costs.

"Hindsight is a beautiful thing," he said.

"If we could've done more in the time, then yeah, we could've, but look, we were able to secure and develop what is now a premiere State Square gallery.

"Now we need the CLP to stop playing games and to get on with opening it as a gallery."

The NT government spokesperson said the building's construction was due to be finalised by the end of October.