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 Namatjira's vibrant water colors are
internationally celebrated for the way he captured the hues of
the Western Desert in the center of the country.
One of his paintings was given to Britain's Queen Elizabeth in
1947 on her 21st birthday and he met the queen during her 1954
coronation tour in Canberra.
Dick Smith, the Australian businessman whose intervention
secured the agreement, told Reuters it was the most satisfying
philanthropic thing he had done.
"It's a just cause," Smith told Reuters in a telephone call on
Saturday.
Born in 1902 in Hermannsburg, a remote Aboriginal community in
central Australia's West MacDonnell ranges, Albert Namatjira
rose to prominence as the first Aboriginal artist to master a
Western tradition.
In 1957, he sold partial copyright for his works to a friend,
John Brackenreg.
Two years later, Namatjira died and his will passed the
copyright remainder to his widow, Robina, and their children.
This gave his family a source of royalty income when
reproductions of the images were used.
However, his estate executors gave the administration of his
will to the public trustee of the state of the Northern
Territory, which sold the copyright to Brackenreg's company,
Legend Press, in 1983 without consulting the family, ABC News
reported.
All royalty payments to Namatjira's descendents ceased and when
Brackenreg died, he passed copyright to his children.
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Eight years ago, arts organization Big hART, began campaigning for
the return of the copyright.
They put together a theater show called "Namatjira" which toured
Australia for three years before traveling to London where in 2013
Queen Elizabeth met two of Namatjira's grandchildren.
News reports caught the eye of Smith, whose father once worked for
Brackenreg.
Smith persuaded Brackenreg's children to give copyright to the
Namatjira Legacy Trust, which represents the family, for A$1 on
Friday.
Smith also donated A$250,000 ($197,200) to the trust.
It is the latest in Smith's long list of charitable acts which
included contributing to the ransom that freed Canadian journalist
Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, taken
hostage in Somalia in 2008.
Sophia Marinos, the chair of the Namatjira Legacy Trust, said the
money would benefit the whole Aboriginal community with funds for
language and cultural programs.
($1 = 1.2677 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Alison Bevege)
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