Australian restaurant where The Beatles and Al Pacino dined to auction off 200 pieces of artwork as it closes down

Italian restaurant Lucio’s in Sydney will auction off the art collection adorning its walls which is nearly as well-known as the foods. Photograph: Getty Illustrations or photos

Lucio’s, the legendary Italian restaurant in Sydney that is placing up the shutters for fantastic, is going to be keeping a closing-down sale with a big difference at the conclude of February.

The 37-yr-old establishment where by The Beatles, Al Pacino and Mikhail Gorbachev have all dined will auction off the 200 artworks that have been hanging on its Tuscan yellow partitions on February 28.

The collection is a testimony to the near friendships amongst proprietor Lucio Galletto and several of Australia’s ideal-acknowledged modern-day and up to date artists, and it has manufactured Lucio’s a cultural spot as significantly as a place for very rated northern Italian delicacies.

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Auctioneer Bonhams has however to release the catalogue of the sale but it says the collection functions performs by John Olsen, Elisabeth Cummings, Luke Sciberras, Garry Shead, Ann Thomson, Hilarie Mais, John Coburn, Tim Storrier and Sidney Nolan.

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Lucio Galletto in front of a set of 35 plates that 35 Australian artists have painted for his restaurant. Image: Courtesy of Lucio’s

It all started in 1984, a calendar year soon after Galletto and his wife, Sally, moved their younger small business to the leafy Sydney suburb of Paddington. Nolan – whose landscapes in the lobby of Hong Kong’s Exchange Square in Central will be familiar to several in the town – on a stop by to the restaurant drew a sketch of renowned Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in a table get notepad, and Galletto was so pleased with it he shown it in the cafe in a gold-leaf-protected body.

Given that then, the cafe has been crammed to the brim with paintings, drawings and sculptures that the Gallettos bought or ended up specified – and a exceptional established of painted plates. In 1998, Galletto invited 15 Australian artists to paint on ceramic plates to celebrate the restaurant’s 15th anniversary. With just about every passing calendar year, a new plate was added.

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Artwork at Lucio’s. Image: Courtesy of Lucio’s

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Artist John Olsen (left) and Galletto in 2011, with Galletto holding Olsen’s structure for his dessert menu. Photograph: Courtesy of Lucio’s

“Foodstuff and art for me is like the air that I breathe,” Galletto the moment wrote. “I grew up in the family members restaurant in Italy exactly where we had an art gallery, so it has always been in my blood. It is pretty vital for me individually and also, I consider for our customers as properly.”

This could not be the stop of the cafe, however. The family members told nearby media that they marketed the creating right before the Covid-19 pandemic and are on the lookout for a new deal with to restart Lucio’s. Possibly a new crop of Australian artists will see their performs grace these partitions.

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