As reported in the Melbourne Age (19 May 1943), a group of 19 sculptures was auctioned off at the NGV by Mr Leonard Joel: see attached report (via Trove). Some 15 of these were pre-Felton acquisitions.

This sale was part of the larger process of extensive culling of the Melbourne collection (mostly Victorian-era works) carried out between the late 1930s and the 1950s, particularly under NGV Director from 1941-52, Daryl Lindsay.

In the order listed in 1943, the sculptures were as follows (refer linked entries for further details on each work):

  1. Marble Eve attrib.to Canova: top price (unspecified): * Canova (attrib.) Eve {1885} Loc? [SC] 
  2. Venus de’Medici replica statuette: £40: * Unknown (Italian 19C?) Venus de’Medici {1878} Loc? [SC]
  3. Summers Maternal Affection (marble): £40: * Summers (Charles) Maternal Affection {1884} Loc? [SC]
  4. Lombardi Cocks Fighting (marble): £20: * Lombardi (Giovita) Fowls – Cocks Fighting {1884} Loc? [SC]
  5. Lombardi Goat and Kid: £17/10: * Lombardi (Giovita) Goat and Kid {1884} Loc? [SC]
  6. Lombardi Hen and Chickens: £25: * Lombardi (Giovita) Hen and Chickens {1884} Loc? [SC] 
  7. P.J.Mene: The Hawker (gilt bronze copy): £17: * Mêne The Hawker {1881} Loc? [SC]
  8. Halse Advance Australia (marble): £11: * Halse Advance Australia 1865 {1891} Loc? [SC]
  9. Summers Duke of Edinburgh (marble bust): £5/10: * Summers (Charles) HRH The Duke of Edinburgh {1873} Loc? [SC]
  10. Summers Sir G.McLeay (marble bust): £6: Summers (Charles) Sir George Macleay {1872} SLV [SC]; NB the sale of this bust appears to have been rescinded and the bust transferred to the SLV
  11. Summers Roman Peasant (male): £10: * Summers (Charles) Roman Peasant (Female) {1880} Loc? [SC]
  12. Summers Roman Peasant (female): £11: * Summers (C.F.) Roman Peasant (Male) {1880} Loc? [SC] 
  13. Lorenzetti, Florence: Boy’s Head (bronze): £21: possibly identical with * Donatello [after] Boy’s Head Loc? [SC]
  14. C.Vacca Greyhound Litter (marble): £10:  work apparently acquired after 1904, by an unidentified artist, presumably not Flaminio Vacca (1538-1605), responsible for the marble lion in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence 
  15. Halse Hop Queen (marble bust): £7: again, apparently acquired after 1904, presumably a version of the example reproduced in the Illustrated London News, 20 Feb.1864 (see https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/illustration/hop-queen-sculpture-by-g-halse-exhibition-of-british-stock-graphic/667617837). For the sculptor, see no.8 above 
  16. Halse Hush (marble bust): £5: no information on this work (acquired after 1904?) has come to light; for the artist, see nos.8 & 15 above
  17. St George & the Dragon (metal): £12: * Unknown St George & the Dragon {by 1871} Loc? [SC] 
  18. Plaster cast of William Shakespeare (monument at Westminster Abbey): £4. This was evidently the plaster cast listed in NGV 1894, p.135, and also in NGV 1880 (giving its height as 5’2”). The original marble statue of Shakespeare by Peter Schneemakers (1691-1781) was erected in Westminster Abbey’s “Poet’s Corner” in 1741, as the centrepiece of a monument designed by William Kent: see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/william-shakespeare. 
  19. Boehm (after) Sir Henry Cole (composition plaster bust): £1: * Boehm [after] Henry Cole 1875 {1876} Loc? [SC]