New York art collector John Wilkerson says his battle over an Australian export licence for a culturally significant painting was a “long and costly experience” but it has not dampened his love and appreciation for Indigenous art.

In 2007, Mr Wilkerson and his wife Barbara purchased a masterpiece of Western Desert painting by Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri that was then denied an export licence because of its cultural importance.

The painting, Two Men Dreaming at Kuluntjarranya, is again being offered for sale, with the promise of a double benefit to Australian art.

Art dealer D’Lan Davidson, who has consigned the painting, said there was interest from Australian institutions in acquiring the large canvas for the nation.

The Wilkersons plan to use the net proceeds from the sale to establish an Australian-US program to train future generations of Indigenous art curators, scholars and gallery directors.

“We always knew the painting would need to return to Australia, and after nearly 15 years travelling extensively abroad, we feel that now is the time for Kuluntjarranya to return home to Australia permanently,” Mr Wilkerson said.

“We speculate that more Americans than Australians have now seen Kuluntjarranya. We hope the painting will find a home in the nation’s collection.”

The picture has an asking price of $2m and Mr Davidson said he hoped it would be acquired by the National Gallery of Australia or the National Museum of Australia.

It goes on display in an exhibition called Significant in Melbourne from Thursday.

“We want it to go to a national institution,” Mr Davidson said. “There are certain things that must stay in the country for the benefit of all Australians.”

Tommy Lowry was one of the original Papunya Tula artists. Two Men Dreaming at Kuluntjarranya, painted in 1984, refers to the songline of the Two Men, or Wati Kutjarra, and their urine which formed the salt lakes of Lowry’s desert homeland.

Lowry died in 1987 after he was shot during a card game.

When the Wilkersons acquired the painting in 2007 it was subject to review by an expert panel, which decided it was too historically significant to leave the country.

The Wilkersons managed to obtain temporary export licences which enabled them to loan the painting for important exhibitions in the US.

Matthew Westwood, Arts Correspondent, The Australian. Download PDF.