News
8 February, 2025
Rare Old Masters now local
Caboolture is now home to Australia’s only art collection of its kind, showcasing 30 pieces of art from old European masters, including original paintings that the Louvre in Paris only has copies or draft s of.
The Abbey Museum’s new exhibit ‘Inspired Images: The Art of Faiths’ opened on February 1, after more than five years of funding, research and construction, along with their new cafe.
According to art researcher and curator, Julia Jackson, who was involved in researching and cataloguing the exhibit’s collection since 2022, “there are no other works like this in Australia.”
“Every time I talk about this collection with colleagues, family or friends, they’re astonished that there are Old Masters in Caboolture and that nobody has heard of them, and that there is such a thing as an unheralded, unknown collection of paintings in Australia,” she said.
“They are largely 16th and 17th century paintings, with a good number of copies from existing artwork of that time, but also a good number of unique, original compositions that are unique to Australian collections.”
One example of the rarity of these works include a copper frame by Leon Louis LeClaire called ‘Vision of Saint Hubert’, with the Abbey Museum now having the original finished artwork, while the world famous Louvre only has its sketch on exhibit.
Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation, Andrew Powell, said he hopes to be able to put the Abbey Museum and its collection on the map for the Olympics, so tourists from across the world have another item on their bucket list.
“I’ve got this fantastic opportunity in the lead up to the Olympics to really focus on what we’re offering,” he said.
“It’s not about the Olympics. It’s about ensuring that when people have their focus on Queensland, they see little things that grab their attention, so much so that when they go back or stop watching the Olympics, they have Queensland on their bucket list.
“We have representatives here from the blue team and from the red team, because at the end of the day we’re the maroon team, and more than that, today, we’re the Abbey team.”
