Drawn to a primitive urge

The congress, which starts tomorrow, has only been held once before outside Europe — in Montreal, in 2004. In fact, organiser Jaynie Anderson, head of fine arts at the University of Melbourne, faced some resistance to her bid to bring the conference Down Under. To some, Australia seemed both geographically and culturally remote — and not steeped enough in the classical arts — a questionable place, in short, to bring a congress with such a prestigious history, first held in Vienna in 1873.

But Anderson had friends in high places — including former congress chairman Professor Ronald de Leeuw, director of the Rijksmuseum, who could vouch for Melbourne's professionalism and dedication to art. After all, de Leeuw had collaborated with the National Gallery of Victoria to bring the outstandingly popular Dutch Masters exhibition to Melbourne three years ago.

The congress — subtitled Conflict, Migration and Convergence — brings together 650 art historians from 47 countries, including Michael Brand, director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Philippe Peltier from Paris' Musee du Quai Branly, Professor Homi Bhabha from the University of Harvard, and Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum, best known for standing firm against requests from the Greek Government for the return of the Elgin Marbles.