A $175,000 Steinway Grand, transformed into a one-of-a-kind artwork by indigenous artist Judy Watson, is up for sale.

Created for the 2007 Queensland Music Festival by indigenous artist Judy Watson in the remote town of Winton, the first Australian Steinway Art Case Piano is both a vivid work of creative expression and a beautiful instrument. Now the unique piano-cum-artwork is up for sale.

Steinway have been commissioning “art case” pianos since 1857. Other recent artists who have created designs include fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld and American craft movement pioneer Wendell Castle. When Watson was first presented with the $175,000 Steinway to use as her canvas, the black and white keys immediately spoke to her as a metaphor for the history of Queensland and her family’s story. Describing her processes, Watson says, “I imagined the piano played in the desert at Winton quivering with heat and sound like a mirage. My memories of colour of this place are whites, yellow ochres, blues and oranges; mesa-shaped hills, caves, dinosaur country. The shells sing of the inland sea fossilised within the ground.”

Shells are embedded into the sound case of the piano. Watson explains, “I have placed a bailer shell on the piano, it...