Australian gambler who made his fortune playing cards and opened Mary Donaldson’s favorite museum in Tasmania

When Queen Consort Mary Donaldson of Denmark lived in Hobart (Tasmania), one of her favorite places to isolate herself from the world was the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) – Museum of Old and New Art – the most Located in one of the beautiful areas of the city. It is a 9,500 square meter building carved into a rock on the banks of the River Derwent, characterized by Most of his works are underground.

The architect and owner of this madness is David Walsh (63), a nouveau riche who acquired his fortune in some strange ways from the very beginning. Win crores by playing blackjack in casino, He has also played roulette and a few years ago he and a partner won 60 million in the German lottery. Born in Glenorchy, one of Hobart’s poorest suburbs, David always thought big. He was the youngest of three children of an ordinary class couple who were able to access the University of Tasmania, the same center where Mary Donaldson studied, where she briefly studied mathematics and computer science.

Due to his high IQ, he developed a series of formulas and algorithms that allowed him to add infinite zeros behind it to a checking account. Away from spending on luxury watches and unsustainable fleets of Rolls Royces and Ferraris, Walsh decided to invest in the arts in his own way. He was not satisfied with purchasing the work.

He decided to build his own museum. A unique place in the world because it is mainly dedicated to sex and death. The building is situated on Moorila Estate, The second oldest vineyard in Tasmania, 75 million dollars were invested in its construction and 30 million in works of art and its maintenance costs about 8 million annually.

The strong point starts from the entrance. Visitors access the complex via a spiral staircase. Which descends 17 meters underground and ends in a sandstone enclosure that is more than 250 million years old. This is where the adventure begins. One of the sculptures in the Fat Cars series is by Erwin Wurm, a Viennese artist who has created a version of the Porsche Carrera, in this case whose chassis, body and interior are made of polystyrene and fiberglass, you can see a 1,500-year-old Egyptian One can see the sarcophagus and even the gold coins of the Parthenon.

However, one of the most spectacular works is Bit.Fall, a two-storey high work by the German Julius Pops that consists of In a paint rain machine that creates words as it falls, To do this, it uses 128 computer-controlled nozzles to drip fountains of water in the form of phrases selected daily from news websites.

david walsh He has been married twice and has three daughters, Grace, Jamie and Sunday. The latter is the result of his union with Kirsha Kaechele, a distinguished American curator of contemporary art, artist and designer of sustainable buildings, who is currently MONA’s caretaker. Kirsha moved to Tasmania in 2010 and married David four years later.