About

Adrian Newstead OAM is Australia's most experienced dealer, valuer and auctioneer of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fine art.

In 1981 he founded Cooee Art Gallery, now Art Leven, the country's oldest exhibiting gallery of Aboriginal art. He directed it until its sale in 2023, when he established Newstead Art.

From 2003 to 2007 he headed the Aboriginal art department at Lawson-Menzies, and in 2007–08 he was Managing Director of Deutscher-Menzies, later Menzies Art Brands. He has been an approved valuer under the Cultural Gifts Program since 1996, and is National President of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia.

In 2014 he published The Dealer is the Devil, an insider's history of the Aboriginal art trade.

Jasmin Smith spent her early years in the Aboriginal communities of Yuelamu and Alpurrurulam, and was raised in Alice Springs (Mparntwe), NT, where her love for Aboriginal art took root. In 2018 she moved to Sydney to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at UNSW Art & Design, majoring in painting and drawing. Alongside her studies she worked for five years as a paralegal and executive assistant in a family law firm. She became Gallery Manager at Newstead Art in 2023, where she brings her lifelong appreciation for Aboriginal art to her role.

Anne Newstead has lived and worked across Europe, Argentina and New York in diverse roles including research science, hospitality and education. Since returning to Australia, she has collaborated with her husband Adrian on a range of creative projects involving Indigenous textiles, design and art events both locally and internationally. She plays a crucial role behind the scenes at Newstead Art, overseeing the conservation, restoration and archival care of artworks. She is also an avid reforestation advocate, devoting time to planting native trees on her property in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

Dr Jim Elmslie is an economist, political scientist, and long-standing dealer and specialist in Aboriginal and Oceanic art. He began his career in the field in 1983, running a gallery on Oxford Street, Sydney, for fifteen years before transitioning into the auction industry in 2004. Jim holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and currently serves as President of the Oceanic Art Society. His academic and commercial expertise has underpinned decades of engagement with Oceanic and Indigenous cultural material.

Kathleen Roberts is a Perth-born scholar currently completing a PhD in Art History at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Her academic and professional trajectory has spanned major cultural institutions across Sydney, where she earned a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney. Her work has continually engaged with the intersection of art and cultural heritage law, supported by further studies at the Université de Genève, Universiteit Leiden, and in Juris Doctor studies at the Australian National University. A long-time collaborator of both Adrian Newstead OAM and Dr Jim Elmslie, Kathleen currently resides in Munich.

Mia Collis is a consultant and auction catalogue designer for Newstead Art. With academic foundations in Art History and Economics from the University of Sydney, Mia has held roles at Shapiro Auctioneers and Cooee Art, where she specialised in decorative arts and auction operations. Having lived in London, Tokyo, Paris and Sydney, she brings a cosmopolitan perspective to the business of art, balancing intellectual insight with a pragmatic approach to event curation and collection management.