Stolen!

My great grandfather William Short Snr. painted this Victorian heritage artwork in 1898, depicting the Hanging Rock Races, Woodend, New Year Cup Meeting. The painting is in oils on canvas, 113 cm x 165 cm, in it’s original gilded frame. The only photo I have was taken with inadequate lighting.

I was gifted the painting when my mother died in 2012 and share ownership with two my siblings. I’ve viewed it only once, since, shortly after my mother’s death. My siblings have concealed its whereabouts and may have sold it without my knowledge. A third of my mother’s estate and my own artwork has also gone missing. I’ve been denied legal representation by a suburban lawyer and Victoria Police has declined to intervene.

When my mother’s Will was distributed, my siblings informed me of their intention to sell the painting, to which I responded that as the only living career artist in the family, I wanted to retain my share and sought custodianship. My siblings have since declined to respond to any of my attempts to contact them.

The executor of my mother's estate, my sister's eldest son, appointed without my knowledge by my siblings when my mother was suffering onset dementia, had indicated that they could probably sell the painting without my consent. The last email I received from him, in 2013, comprised the words, “Fuck off you moron”.

A Detective Senior Constable with Victoria Police claimed the painting was held “in good faith” at my sister’s property. Her last known address was sold in 2015. A letter I posted to my sister at my nephew’s last known address was returned "recipient unknown". My brother’s last known address, a home he owned, is now a rental property. I posted a letter to an address at which he has a telephone connected in Brighton, but it was also returned "recipient unknown".

Letters to an extended family have similarly been returned or refused response, including one to a cousin, Simon McKeon AO, who was awarded Australian of the Year in the year before my mother’s death. A letter sent to his family residence, at which he hosted my father's wake and has a telephone connected, was returned “left address”.

The author with his granddaughter, mother and daughter.

After my father died in the late 1990s, my mother made a Will nominating a Berwick solicitor, the son of her best, as executor. On a visit to my mother in 2007, I met with him. He advised that my sister had removed my mother’s Will from his office and a new Will had been made. I hadn’t been consulted. My siblings had arranged the new Will without my knowledge. The solicitor agreed to act on my behalf when my mother died, with a view to contesting the new Will, after I assured him funds from my share of the estate could cover costs.

When my mother died in 2012, I contacted the solicitor’s office and was informed that he was not available, but that his colleague would represent me. The colleague accepted instructions but would not respond to my requests for an estimate of costs to challenge the Will. After some time I received an account for around $540.00 with advice that he would proceed no further until it was paid. I was unable to meet this or any further demands for money until the estate was distributed, so I lodged a complaint with the Legal Services Commissioner. By the time the complaint was resolved the matter was out of time. I had been denied the right to challenge my mother’s Will, I hadn’t even viewed the probate documents, so it would come as some surprise that a third of her estate was missing when it was distributed. I contacted several other solicitors including Slater & Gordon, Armstrongs, Nevette Ford, Gerard Malouf and Maddens, all of whom declined to represent me because the matter was out of time.

In 2014, I wrote to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria with concern over the conduct of the lawyer I had instructed and was advised that I needed to instruct another lawyer to lodge a complaint against the first lawyer. But what if the second lawyer behaved in a similar manner to the lawyer I was complaining about, there were no guarantees. Was I to keep instructing lawyers until I got lucky and found one of ethical persuasion? The proposition seemed absurd.

So I forwarded complaints of theft and blackmail against my siblings and nephew to Crimestoppers. Detective Senior Constable Mark Wiederhold investigated the matters and concluded that nothing had been stolen because the alleged thieves had made no admissions, and my nephew’s email to me that he would spend my inheritance on his mortgage if I continued to refuse to sign a release form, was only a joke. He had intended to disperse $4,000 from my mother’s estate to my four year old granddaughter, of Wiradjuri descent, but reversed his decision when I failed to comply, before threatening to remove what remained of my inheritance altogether, adding elements of casual racism and child exploitation to his conduct.

I wrote to Chief Commissioner Ken Lay with concern over the integrity of the investigation. Detective Senior Constable Wiederhold replied that it was nothing to do with him because it was a civil matter. He made no mention of this during or at the completion of his investigation. I wrote to Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, again with concern over the integrity of Detective Senior Constable Wiederhold’s investigation, and received a response from Acting Inspector Patrick Allen confirming the detective’s approach. On the advice of the Office of the Minister for Police, in March 2016, I lodged a complaint of an error of judgement against Detective Senior Constable Wiederhold with the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission. The only response I received was that I’m not a protected person.

Correspondence to the Premier, Hon Daniel Andrews, elicited the response that I should contact NSW Legal Aid, who informed me that they could not provide assistance; the Victorian Heritage Council, who sent a link to apply for heritage listing for the stolen painting should it be recovered; and the Victorian Inspectorate to review the decision that I’m not a protected person, although I wasn’t seeking protection from Victoria Police.

My concern remains that Victoria Police have indicated that the offence of blackmail perpetrated by an executor of an estate in concert with two of three principal beneficiaries, as well as the breach of trust and denial of care of an elderly woman suffering dementia and the theft of a third of her estate, including artworks of considerable value, when committed within an estranged extended family, are not indictable criminal matters under Victorian law, that elderly women are fair game for predatory familial behaviour.

My mother long suspected my siblings, career public high school teachers, might succumb to rivalry over my determination to pursue my family’s heritage in the arts. William Short Snr.’s father, Henry Short, volunteered as artist on the 1860/1 Burke and Wills expedition but was left behind. His painting commemorating the expedition has been displayed at Federation Square. William Short Snr’s son, William Short, aka Uncle Willy, was an artist of lesser acclaim, as was his daughter, my grandmother, Annie Short. My mother, who had befriended Sid Nolan and Albert Tucker during their sojourns to Sandringham beach, taught music. I grew up surrounded by heritage artwork and the materials that produced it. In the early 1970s I trained at Martin Sharpe’s ‘Yellow House’ in Potts Point, Sydney and have produced and sold artwork in Australia and elsewhere over 50 years. Currently, I'm embedded in the arts community in Nimbin, NSW that I assisted to establish in the region 45 years ago.

The author's artwork, "Bird" 1977, 30" x 24", acrylic on card, again photographed with inadequate lighting and also stolen from his mother's estate.

In the 1980s my mother purchased two properties at Rye and Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula where she spent much of her childhood, one for herself and the other for her three children. I was invited to use one of the properties as a studio on the provision my siblings and their families could stay at any time. Her expectation that my siblings, from whom I’d become estranged, would visit during holidays and become acquainted with my career in the arts, was dashed when over the next decade my brother stayed for one night only and my sister for half an hour. My mother was heartbroken. Eventually I left to teach Aboriginal Studies at UNSW and reintegrate with the Sydney arts community.

After my father died my siblings made demands on my mother for compensation of $50,000 in her Will for what they claimed was rent I owed on the property I’d been invited to share with them. She resisted and lodged a Will of her own volition with her solicitor, only to be voided when my siblings arranged a new Will in their favour when she was ninety years old, afflicted with onset dementia and in a state of mind the solicitor described as “bloody minded”. The Rye property was sold in 1995 and a further property purchased at McCrae. Thereafter, as I remained in Sydney and my siblings gained power of attorney and took control of my mother’s estate, I received no further updates. A decade before her death my mother owned a property portfolio that at the time she passed would have added more than $500,000 to the value of her estate had it not gone missing.

William Short Snr’s depiction of the New Year Cup Meeting at Hanging Rock in 1898 is his seminal work, completed towards the end of his career. It was placed on sale in Melbourne for 100 guineas but remained unsold for sixteen years as his style had gone out of fashion, to be replaced by a new wave of artists that included Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. The painting was passed to his daughter Annie, then my mother, and became a focal point of the Sandringham home in which I grew up.

After my mother died my brother agreed to obtain a condition report and valuation of the painting from David Freeman, whom the Victorian Artists Society had recommended. Mr Freeman was never granted access. Instead, I received a valuation from my siblings' preferred valuer dated 1 April, 2007 that my sister had concealed until just prior to the distribution of the Will in 2013, and soon after, a second, updated valuation by the same valuer, both attributing the painting to William Short (Uncle Willy). The actual artist, his father William Short Snr., whose signature appears on the painting, was far more prominent. Valuations of $45,000 and $65,000 were grossly underestimated. My mother reminded my siblings and myself frequently during our upbringing of the distinction between her grandfather William Short Snr. and Uncle Willy. Had she been of sound mind when the first valuation was made, nineteen days before the substituted Will was signed on 20 April, 2007, she would surely have noticed.

As my mother’s health deteriorated she was relocated from her residence in Berwick to my brother’s property at Macclesfield. On two occasions that I was advised, she was moved to nursing homes, then returned to my brother’s care to avoid further expense, where his eldest daughter reported that she required constant attention and suffered frequent tantrums day and night. An uncle, a retired physician, visited and suggested that she should be placed into immediate medical care. I was not informed as to whether his advise was heeded. The distribution of her estate indicated that at her death she had no assets apart from her residence and my great grandfather’s painting and no funds to pay for her welfare. The executor reimbursed my siblings, his mother and uncle, the cost of her funeral from the sale of her residence as well as $20,000 I had borrowed from the estate in the twenty months following my mother’s death, funds that were not declared amongst her assets. Her entire estate, apart from her residence and the painting, had been stolen and she was denied adequate medical care towards the end of her life.

My brother removed the painting to his property at Macclesfield when my mother was relocated. I became concerned about it’s condition when he revealed that he would hastily transport it, uncrated in a horse float, to my sister’s property at Narre Warren ahead of bush fire fronts. I’d once lost an exhibition of my own artwork to a fire at Hepburn Springs, so after I was gifted a share, I considered putting it up for sale on Ebay or elsewhere to attract a corporate arts investor with the legal clout to ensure it was cared for in an appropriate manner. However, since my siblings had already refused access, I could not guarantee a viewing to a prospective purchaser. Neither could I submit the painting for heritage registration.

My great grandfather’s painting is an important contribution to Victoria’s heritage. If you’ve seen it or can assist in it’s recovery please contact philip@2mf.net.

Philip McKeon, 28 Cullen Street, Nimbin NSW 2480

2mf.net