AGNSW receives major gift from John and Caroline Laws collection

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has accepted a significant gift of Australian art from the collection of the late Sydney broadcaster John Laws CBE (1935–2025) and his wife Caroline Laws (d. 2020), assembled across the couple’s 44-year marriage and long displayed in their home.

The ten works enter the gallery’s permanent collection and include four paintings by John Russell — the only Australian painter closely associated with leading late 19th-century French artists including Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse — alongside two important paintings by Rupert Bunny, among the most celebrated Australian expatriate artists of his generation.

The gift extends to under-represented women artists with a watercolour of the newly completed Sydney Harbour Bridge by Adelaide painter Gwen Barringer, and an intimate oil study of gum blossoms by Jane Price, one of only three women affiliated with the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionist painters in the 1880s.

Two landscape works round out the gift: a major watercolour of England’s Lake District by John Glover, and a drawing of the Fish River by Brett Whiteley, made while the artist was staying at the Laws’ Oberon property in 1979.

Several of the Russell and Bunny works were previously lent to the gallery for the major exhibitions John Russell: Australia’s French Impressionist (2018) and Rupert Bunny: Artist in Paris (2009–10), establishing a long relationship that has now culminated in this gift.

“We are deeply grateful to the estate of John and Caroline Laws for this significant and generous gift,” said Wayne Tunnicliffe, the gallery’s Director of Collections and Exhibitions. “It’s a lasting expression of their passion for Australian art and collecting during their 44-year marriage, and a generous legacy for the people of New South Wales. Bequests such as this provide vital philanthropic support and strengthen the Art Gallery’s permanent collection in profound and enduring ways.”

Laws’s long-time personal assistant Jodee Borgo said: “John and Caroline were devoted collectors of international and Australian art. It’s a privilege to see their wish realised through the gift of these works to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where they will be enjoyed by audiences now and into the future.”

John Laws CBE was one of Australia’s most enduring radio broadcasters, with a career spanning seven decades and a distinctive voice that defined commercial radio for generations. Alongside broadcasting, he was a keen collector of fine art and antiques. Caroline Laws shared her husband’s deep interest in art and design, and together they built a collection defined by connoisseurship, curiosity and an appreciation for both Australian and European traditions.

The John and Caroline Laws collection is now on display in the gallery’s Naala Nura building.

Image: Installation view of John Russell ‘Untitled (Rocks and sea, Belle-Île)’ 1886, new exhibition display in Naala Nura featuring artworks from the John and Caroline Laws Collection 2026, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter