If Gina Rinehart was making an attempt to ensure nobody noticed a portrait of her, current strikes have had the alternative impact.

Final week, media – together with Guardian Australia – reported that Australia’s richest girl had demanded the National Gallery of Australia remove a portrait of her. The portray by the artist Vincent Namatjira is one in all quite a few portraits on show on the Canberra gallery in Namatjira’s first main survey exhibition.

However the NGA rebuffed her calls for – and information of her request has meant the portrait has been seen by many extra eyes than it will have in any other case.

Rinehart seems to have fallen sufferer to the “Streisand effect”, a time period coined after Barbra Streisand launched a lawsuit in 2003 to attempt to take away an aerial photograph of her California seaside home from a web-based assortment. Streisand’s try and suppress the picture led to nearly half one million folks visiting the ­Pictopia web site to view the photograph inside a month.

An identical factor appears to have occurred with Rinehart. The NGA instructed Guardian Australia in a press release that there had been a “noticeable enhance” in guests to the nationwide gallery in addition to its digital channels over the previous week.

Google tendencies has additionally given us a sweeping indicator of the worldwide acquire in traction of the search time period “Gina Rinehart”.

Earlier than 15 Might – the day the primary tales about Rinehart’s portrait demand was revealed – curiosity in Rinehart on Google was at roughly 0, that means there was not sufficient search information on the time period.

However after the information broke, search curiosity picked up, with “Gina Rinehart” hitting peak reputation two days later.

Per week later, curiosity lingered.

Australia and New Zealand had been the highest two areas looking out “Gina Rinehart”. However curiosity within the drama has gone world, with Austria, Eire and Slovenia within the high 5.

Rinehart’s portray has featured in media around the globe. The New York Submit jumped on the story on 16 Might, as did CNN and the Mirror UK.

BBC, the Hindustan Instances and South China Morning Submit adopted go well with with protection on 17 Might.

Rinehart and her portrait even received a point out on US talkshow The Late Present with Stephen Colbert.

“A billionaire has referred to as for the elimination of an unflattering portrait of her,” Colbert mentioned in a phase on The Late Present. “I imply, come on. How unflattering might this portrait probably be,” he begins, earlier than having a look on the portray.

“OK, I’ve received to say, um, I’m no artwork professional, however on this portrait, I consider the artist actually captured her expression in the intervening time she noticed this portrait.”

A Time magazine headline summarised the state of affairs completely only a day after Rinehart’s demand: “An Australian Billionaire Tried to Suppress an Aboriginal Artist’s Unflattering Portrait of Her. It’s Solely Drawn Extra Consideration.”

After the information of Rinehart’s demand, Namatjira put out a press release.

“I paint the world as I see it,” the Archibald prize-winning artist mentioned. “Folks don’t have to love my work, however I hope they take the time to look and assume, ‘Why has this Aboriginal bloke painted these highly effective folks? What’s he making an attempt to say?’”

In the meantime, Rinehart’s website features a portrait by an unnamed native artist “depicting Mrs Rinehart in her most popular surroundings” – a mushy smile enjoying upon the mining magnate’s lips as she gazes away from a discipline of vibrant buds and the rolling Pilbara hills. (This one is much less ruddy-chubby-cheeked, extra easy-breezy-beautiful).

However which portrait would make it to a billboard? The Australian presenter and comic Dan Ilic desires to show Namatjira’s portrait in New York’s Instances Sq. – and he has already crowdfunded $17,000 of the $30,000 purpose to make it occur.