David Walsh opens A$100m Phrontisterion wing at Mona in Tasmania

This weekend, David Walsh, a wealthy professional gambler and the founder of Australia's largest privately owned museum, the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart, Tasmania, will unveil a new wing named Phrontisterion. With an estimated cost of A$100m ($70m), it marks the most significant construction endeavor in Mona's 15-year existence, expanding the exhibition area from 8,440 sq. m to approximately 12,640 sq. m. The new wing features a library housing over 50,000 books, maps, and documents, along with custom cabinetry and innovative cataloguing technology intended to rival the Dewey Decimal System. Notable installations include Anselm Kiefer's Elektra (2025) and Julian Charrière's Breathe, alongside works by various artists. Adjacent to the museum, the 9m-high timber pavilion In Absence (2019) by Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office showcases over 1,400 hand-blown glass daisy yams. Walsh aims to 'actively re-educate people about how to use a museum,' emphasizing that acquiring 'elite art is targeted status acquisition.'