Sculpture bust of Donald Bradman

A bust of Sir Donald Bradman by Arturo Comelli, sculpted in 1971 from a mixture of pink marble dust and cement, based on photographs of Bradman

Arturo Giobatta Comelli, born 1900, emigrated to South Australia in 1926 from the Udine area of north-eastern Italy. Working as a sculptor his pieces include Christ on the Cross at St Francis Catholic Church at Newton, the capitals for columns on the facade of Parliament House and a King Neptune statue first displayed at a Darlington service station and later at Birkenhead.

During the campaign to save the ANZ Bank building (later Edmund Wright House) in 1971 he presented the A.N.Z. Building Preservation Trust appeal committee with a bust of Bradman, with the intention that it would be auctioned however the auction sale did not go ahead. Mr Comelli died on 18 February 1975. The sculpture was transferred to the State Library in 1996 and used in the Bradman Collection exhibition in the Institute Building from 1998 to 2003.

The Bradman Collection is now on display at Adelaide Oval.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

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