Maitland hopes to expand its Les Darcy collection when rare memorabilia goes under the hammer in Sydney on Saturday.
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Maitland Regional Art Gallery cultural director Brigette Uren has confirmed the city will bid on some of the 49 items being offered through Sydney Rare Book Auctions.
The auction list includes a pair of boxing gloves Darcy used for training, fight cards, original photographs, magazine and newspaper clippings and cartoons.
The boxing gloves are expected to make between $2000 and $3000, while each fight card should fetch a few hundred dollars.
The gallery is still deciding which items it will try to secure.
“Hopefully the bids will be successful and we will be able to be the custodians of the items,” Ms Uren said. “The city would benefit from having the collection and we believe it should come to Maitland.”
Maitland historian Peter Bogan praised the gallery’s pursuit of the memorabilia, saying Maitland should have it because Darcy was seen as a legend in the town.
“He’s our most famous son, everyone knows his story,” he said.
“I remember my father telling me that when the hearse arrived at the East Maitland cemetery the back of the funeral procession was still leaving St Joseph’s church.
“Anything about Les Darcy is always popular.”
It is almost 100 years since Darcy died of pneumonia in the United States at the age of 24.
He fought in the region before being named Australian Middleweight Champion and Australian Heavyweight Champion by the age of 19.
He then went to America for four or five fights, which he said would have made his family financially secure, but circumstances never allowed them to eventuate.
He ended up taking out citizenship in the United States and joining the army before he fell ill in 1917.
The letters and post cards he wrote to his mother are part of the gallery’s latest Les Darcy exhibition, which opens on Saturday.
“It’s a coincidence that on the day we are opening a personal collection exhibition of Les Darcy that these items are being auctioned in Sydney,” Mr Uren said.
The exhibition will be opened by art dealer Rex Irwin between 3pm and 5pm on Saturday and run until May.