Independent Collectors

Museum of Old and New Art

Collector and philanthropist David Walsh has created Australia’s largest private museum.

Located on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) displays the diversity of Walsh’s private art collection that ranges from ancient to modern to contemporary art, featuring artists such as Erwin Wurm, Gelitin, Anselm Kiefer, Christian Boltanski, Wim Delvoye or Brigita Ozolin to name but a few.

Here on IC, the passionate collector shares a selection of pieces that are on permanent view and are well worth a trip down under.

WILFREDO PRIETO, Untitled (White Library), 2004-2006. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WILFREDO PRIETO, Untitled (White Library), 2004-2006. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WILFREDO PRIETO, Untitled (White Library), 2004-2006. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WILFREDO PRIETO, Untitled (White Library), 2004-2006. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
ROMAN SIGNER, Engpass, 2000-2011. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
ROMAN SIGNER, Engpass, 2000-2011. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
ROMAN SIGNER, Engpass, 2000-2011, MONA Museum of Old and New Art
ROMAN SIGNER, Engpass, 2000-2011, MONA Museum of Old and New Art
Mona's southern facade viewed from Little Frying Pan Island, south of the museum, and view of JAMES TURRELL's Amarna (2015) Skyspace installation during dawn sequence. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
Mona's southern facade viewed from Little Frying Pan Island, south of the museum, and view of JAMES TURRELL's Amarna (2015) Skyspace installation during dawn sequence. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JANNIS KOUNELLIS, Untitled, 2002 and SIR SIDNEY NOLAN, Snake, 1970-1972. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JANNIS KOUNELLIS, Untitled, 2002 and SIR SIDNEY NOLAN, Snake, 1970-1972. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WIM DELVOYE , Cloaca Professional, 2010. WIM DELVOYE , Cloaca Professional, 2010. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Leigh Carmichael
WIM DELVOYE , Cloaca Professional, 2010. WIM DELVOYE , Cloaca Professional, 2010. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Leigh Carmichael
WIM DELVOYE, Flatbed Truck, Trailer and Cement Truck, 2007. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WIM DELVOYE, Flatbed Truck, Trailer and Cement Truck, 2007. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WIM DELVOYE, Chapel, 2010-2011. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
WIM DELVOYE, Chapel, 2010-2011. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JAMES TURRELL, AMARNA (from the Skyspace series), 2015. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JAMES TURRELL, AMARNA (from the Skyspace series), 2015. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JAMES TURRELL, AMARNA (from the Skyspace series), 2015. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
JAMES TURRELL, AMARNA (from the Skyspace series), 2015. © the artist. Courtesy of MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: MONA/Rémi Chauvin
BRIGITA OZOLINS, Kryptos, 2008-2010. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman
BRIGITA OZOLINS, Kryptos, 2008-2010. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman
GREG TAYLOR, Cunts... and other conversations (Detail), 2008-2009. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman
GREG TAYLOR, Cunts... and other conversations (Detail), 2008-2009. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman
GREG TAYLOR, Cunts... and other conversations, 2008-2009. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman
GREG TAYLOR, Cunts... and other conversations, 2008-2009. Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art. Photo: Brett Boardman

MONA is included in the Art Guide.

Have a look at our Collection Portrait of MONA here.

Australia (15)

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Given its spacious and unorthodox design, the JAHM looks more like a public exhibition venue than a private residence.

Lyon Housemuseum

A 40-minute tram ride from Melbourne takes you to this unique hybrid space

ARNDT Collection

Tiffany Wood and Matthias Arndt aim to collect works that create disturbance

The Elliott Eyes Collection

In the Victorian townhouse of the Elliot Eyes Collection, art fills every available wall and corner. Interview with Gordon Elliott.

Observance & Turbulent Water

Two Exhibitions at the University of Melbourne’s Buxton Contemporary

Palmer Sculpture Landscape

Greg Johns has created a symbiotic relationship between art and the ancient landscape of South Australia

Get Nude With Art and Stuart Ringholt

Buxton Contemporary has a new artistic support project, ‘Light Source commissions’, launched with Stuart Ringholt’s “Looking at a painting without clothes on in the safety of your own home”.

Bauhaus Now!

The Buxton Contemporary, shares "Bauhaus Now!" with a range of contemporary experiments inspired by the Bauhaus diaspora.

Lyon Housemuseum 2017

If collecting is about the bond between artwork and collector, then the Lyon Housemuseum is the result of when art and life merge together.

Austrian Contemporary Art

Sliced into the green hills of Austria's Carinthia district you'll find the sleek, exposed concrete building that the Museum Liaunig calls home.

22nd Biennale of Sydney

The 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, lives on through a diverse virtual program to be launched soon, as well as this Online Exhibition in the meantime!

Matthias Arndt

„In the beginning and in the end, you have to love your artworks for their inherent value, the beauty but also the artistic vision they represent“

A Blueprint for Ruins – The White Rabbit Gallery

A Blueprint for Ruins highlights the urban references in 21st-century Chinese art and is the most successful exhibition of the collection so far.