Back in 1992, the extreme Left in the student body at Macquarie University, Sydney, queried the growth of a sculpture park on their sylvan campus with the rationale that it was “just beautifying the place”, failing to be utilitarian. They even planned active vandalisation. But vice chancellor Di Yerbury managed to lock the most vulnerable art away in the exam vaults. The Left was then turned from its destructive course by meetings with the indigent artists who’d made the work.

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