Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this commentary contains images or names of people who have since passed away.

Following a concerted media and legal campaign, the Namatjira Legacy Trust has succeeded in securing the ownership of the copyright of Albert Namatjira following a recent resolution of claims made by the Trust against the long-time copyright owner Legend Press.

The circumstances of the transfer of the copyright were quite extraordinary (I wrote about the copyright in a previous article for ABR Arts). After Arnold Bloch Leibler, pro bono lawyers for the Trust, sent a letter to Legend Press, the philanthropist Dick Smith became involved in helping the parties to resolve the dispute. Dick’s father had worked for the father of the present owner of Legend Press, and Dick said that he had a particular wish to see the long-running dispute finally resolved. In the outcome, and without any prompting or request, Dick paid a donation to the Trust of $250,000. With the receipt of the donation, the Trust paid $1 to Legend Press to obtain the assignment of the whole of the copyright in the large body of works of Albert Namatjira.