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One of the crown jewels of the National Gallery of Australia’s collection, Blue Poles by Jackson Pollock, will go on display in Western Australia for the first time next year.

During a campaigning swing through electorally sensitive WA, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will on Tuesday announce a loan of the massive work to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth from April to September 2027. It is the painting’s first interstate tour since it featured at the NGV’s 20th anniversary exhibition in 2003/4.

The painting will be loaned as part of a program designed to share key items from Australia’s national cultural collection and coincides with badly needed upgrade works at the NGA in Canberra.

The Whitlam government sensationally bought the painting in 1973 for $1.4m, but it is now insured for more than $500m. When sold, it was the highest price paid for an American work of art.

“Blue Poles changed our nation, so it makes sense that the nation gets to see it,” Albanese said:

double quotation mark The national collection belongs to every Australian – no matter where they live.

That’s why we’re sending Blue Poles to Perth, making sure the west can enjoy this masterpiece and important part of our national story.