The head of Swimming Queensland has defended a campaign that saw Olympic champions lobby the National Gallery of Australia to take down portraits of their patron, Gina Rinehart, because they were deemed “offensive”. An acrylic-on-canvas colour portrait by Vincent Namatjira of Australia’s richest woman was the target of the campaign along with a second black and white portrait by Namatjira in ink and pencil. The colour piece – arguably an unflattering picture of the mining magnate - is one of 21 portraits of prominent Australian and international figures that make up the artwork titled Australia in Colour. Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting is a major sponsor of Australian Olympic sports – funding sports bodies as well as individual athletes. Related: Redone, hidden, burnt: seven famous subjects and the portraits they hated The sponsorship is often conditional, however. In 2022, Rinehart withdrew a $15m sponsorship of Netball Australia after the Indigenous netballer Donnell Wallam asked for her uniform not to carry the Hancock Prospecting logo. Rinehart later set up a $3m fund to reward athletes who won gold medals or set world records in swimming, artistic swimming, rowing and volleyball. Hancock Prospecting has sponsored Australian swimmers to the tune of $40m. The...