The Sydney businessman and philanthropist tragically died this week, when he was hit by a Ford Ranger ute in Sydney’s CBD on Monday. He passed on 14 July, aged 79. The driver of the vehicle will appear in court in August.
Schaeffer’s death has shocked the art world. ‘He was probably one of our greatest arts patrons and he has never really been fully recognised for that,’ said art critic John McDonald in Sydney Morning Herald.
A Dutch immigrant, Schaeffer arrived in Australia in 1960. His first job was in a Woolworths store. When the cleaner resigned, Schaeffer took on the role, mortgaging his home in 1971 and building it into a vast cleaning empire, Tempo Services, which employed over 20,000 people.
AFR reported that ‘by 2000 he debuted on the BRW Rich List, worth $110 million. But in the early 2000s his business hit troubled waters.’ Schaeffer sold a large part of his art collection and real estate portfolio, but the financial dint didn’t stop his passion for collecting.
Schaeffer made an incredible impact on the gallery landscape in Australia.
He was a member of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation board as well as a former trustee to the Art Gallery of New South (2001-09) and Foundation trustee (2010-19). He part of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia inception as a Founding Benefactor, and then on the Gallery’s Board (2000-05). He also gifted works to the National Gallery of Victoria and the University of Sydney.
AGNSW Director Michael Brand said in a formal statement this week: ‘John’s support over 20 years came from a deep love and knowledge of our historical collections…his many major gifts of art to the Gallery were all made with the intelligent eye of a great collector.’
Current president of the board of trustees at AGNSW, David Gonski, added: ‘John was an enormous contributor to the Gallery not just as a generous benefactor but as a result of his wise advice as a trustee and as a very well informed and loved member of the Gallery’s supporters.’
In 2000, the AGNSW named the room containing its 19th-century collection, the John Schaeffer Gallery.
Director NGA Nick Mitzevich echoed the comments this week, adding to AFR: ‘He was unrestrained when it came to his enthusiasm for art and sharing it with others.’
Among the gifted works to NGA was the painting After Cezanne (2000) by Lucian Freud, acquired for $7.4million (2001) for the gallery.
On Instagram the National Portrait Gallery was also quick to tribute Schaeffer, saying, ‘Our hearts are heavy with grief…John has left an extraordinary legacy to the people of Australia through his passion, commitment and dedication to advancing the arts in Australia.’
A portrait of Schaeffer by Evert Ploeg, and painted in 2014, is held in NPG’s collection.
Schaeffer’s passion was not exclusive to pre-Raphealite art. He started collecting Australian paintings – his first major purchase was a Norman Lindsay painting bought for a then record-setting $200,000 in the mid 1970s.
But it was after visiting a major Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at London’s Tate gallery in 1984, that his collecting direction changed. The AGNSW said: ‘It didn’t bother him in the least that he was indifferent to fashions.’
Schaeffer became so famed for his passion for Pre-Raphaelite, Victorian Olympian and 19th-century European paintings, that he was known to regularly outbid the composer, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Schaeffer wore a gold signet ring from circa 1834 that had belonged to the English painter William Holman Hunt, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelites.
Schaeffer was also known for his real estate prowess, the owner of what have been described as ‘trophy properties’ in Sydney. The most notable was the Sydney property Boomerang in Elizabeth Bay which set the Australian record for the most expensive residential sale when he bought it in 2002 for $20.7 million.
He also owned Rona at Bellevue Hill and later the F. Glynn Gilling-designed mansion Bonnington in Bellevue Hill.
Schaeffer is survived by his partner, film producer Bettina Dalton, his daughter from his first marriage, Joanne Schaeffer, and three grandchildren.
