How to Transport a Giant Valuable Artwork in Australia

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Julia Bergin, a reporter based in the Northern Territory.

A vehicle swerves from left to right across three lanes on the highway.

“You’ve got 100 millimeters on your left side. Keep steady, keep straight,” its driver says into a radio.

He is tailed by two vehicles fitted with rooftop road signs that warn of an “oversize load ahead.” Next comes a police escort two cars strong, and finally, the centerpiece of the convoy: a huge truck coasting along with an artwork weighing about 14 tons.

Covered in film and netting, and locked in place with a heavy frame, the massive metal sculpture is worth nearly $10 million. Earlier this week, its convoy of support vehicles stretched out on the road for just shy of a mile. To get to its destination, the whole apparatus spent five and half days traveling from Brisbane to the nation’s capital, Canberra. There, at the National Gallery of Australia, the piece, by an Australian artist named Lindy Lee and titled “Ouroboros,” will remain for a projected 500 years.

Maybe, considering time and space, it’s a short drive for a long stay. Maybe to some, it’s not that special: All around the world, art is wrapped, packaged and piled into various modes of transport to travel from point A to B. And yet, in Australia, the country’s geographical vastness and unique challenges produce experiences that few art movers elsewhere would find familiar.

Nick Mitzevich, the director of the National Gallery of Australia, said it’s not uncommon for artworks to go by ship, circumnavigating the country, instead of by truck. That’s because bumps, dust, extreme heat, mountainous terrain, and curvy roads can inflict damage.

“It’s not necessarily the shortest route we’re after, but rather the route that will have the least impact on the work of art,” Mr. Mitzevich said, explaining why Ms. Lee’s highly polished stainless-steel rendition of a giant snake eating its tail took the “scenic trail.”