Arthur Beau Palmer

Arthur Beau Palmer is a Gallery Owner and deals in high end investment Aboriginal & Oceanic tribal artefacts & fine art.  He specialises in sourcing omissions in major established Private & Public collections and advice on future investment opportunities for those beginning in the field of Ethnographic Fine Art collecting.

The Palmer consultancy offers Valuations & Appraisal, Provenance, Research, Insurance, Bequests, Auction Purchase Advice, Sale and Sourcing in all areas of Material Culture & Ethnographic Fine Art.

He began collecting Aboriginal Material Culture in the 1950s & PNG field collecting in 1968.

The Palmer family has a history of direct association with Papua New Guinea Torres Strait which goes back five generations to the 1870s. Arthur's Great Grandfather Hon Sir Arthur H Palmer KCMG Premier 1870-73 & Govenor Queensland 1883-1896 annexed New Guinea & Formation of British New Guinea Armed Constabulary 1890 etc (see Sir William MacGregor /Sir A H Palmer correspondance 1880s).

Arthur's father Sqd/Ldr BMH Palmer DFC CO 5 Sqadron RAAF Bougainville Solomons & Fighter Command Horn Is. Torres Strait & Merauke Dutch New Guinea (WWII 1942-45).

Arthur re-catalouged the MacGregor collection Queensland Museum 1975-77, as assistant to the Curator of Anthropology & Archeaology, for repatriation post PNG Independance.

In the 1980s he directed a large scale environmental health programme with Cape York & Torres Strait Traditional Owner Communities. He is widely published & has one of the largest private Australian Family collections of Aboriginal, New Guinea & Pacific Art.

His personal Photographic Library of 35,000 traditional colour and B&W images (currently in the process of digitizing) is the product of systematically using a camera the way most Anthropologist use a note book.

Having spent 25 years of his professional life as an anthropologist and pilot in northern Australia based in Darwin Northern Territory Arthur moved his family back to Brisbane to open his Artifact Fine Art Gallery in 1999.

As a permanent staff member Anthropology/Archaeology section for Qld Museum & Uni of Qld Anthropology Museum he field collected traditional material culture in Kimberley WA, NT, Cape York & Torres Strait between 1975- 77.

He was appointed the Inaugural Head of Land Claims for the Northern Land Council 1977 -1982, and since 1982 an independent Australian consultant ethnographer engaged in full time field work projects (Interface Aboriginal Organisations, Traditional Owners, Government and Private sector development. Pastoral, Mining, Aviation, Health, Media, Film, Consultation, Negotiations, Court Submissions, Reports, Briefs, Expert Testimony, Case Preparation. Project Implementation, Feasibility, Monitor, Research, Advice. MABO, Native Title, Sacred Sites, Land Rights Act, Local Community Cultural centres & Museums).

1984-1990 he was Director of the North Australian Aboriginal environmental health canine programme & was consultant to Aboriginal Sacred Site Authority NT.
More recently he was the senior Consultant and Chief Pilot for Year of the Outback 2002.

Approved to value the following classes for the Australian Government s Cultural Gifts Programme:
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander material culture and contemporary art, Arnhem Land Aboriginal Bark Paintings (19thC to present), Aboriginal Hermannsburg watercolours (1930s to present), Pacific (Melanesian Papua New Guinea, Solomons & Islands, Polynesia & Micronesia), African, Asian, American Indian material culture, Australian Early and Modern Fine Art, International Aviation Art, Trench Art WWI & WWII