Australian art collector
David Dominic Walsh
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Born
| 1961
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Known for
| Art Collector, professional gambler, businessman
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David Dominic Walsh
AO
(born 1961
[1]
) is an Australian professional gambler, art collector and businessman. He is the owner of the
Museum of Old and New Art
(MONA) and
Moorilla Estate
.
[2]
Background
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]
Walsh grew up in a
Roman Catholic
family in the
Glenorchy
district of
Hobart
,
Tasmania
,
Australia
, the youngest of three children. He attended
Dominic College
, and the
University of Tasmania
, where he briefly studied mathematics and computer science in 1979.
[3]
Walsh made his fortune by developing a gambling system used to bet on horse racing and other sports.
Walsh describes himself as a "rabid atheist".
[1]
He has been married twice, the second time in March 2014, to artist
Kirsha Kaechele
. He has three children from different relationships,
[3]
[4]
including one with Kirsha Kaechele.
[5]
In 2001, he founded the Moorilla Museum of Antiquities on the
Berriedale peninsula
in Hobart, which closed in 2007 to undergo $75 million renovations. It was re-opened in January 2011 as the
Museum of Old and New Art
[6]
or MONA. MONA won the 2012 Australian Tourism Award for best new development and is a major Tasmanian tourist attraction.
In 2009, Walsh and his syndicate reportedly won $16?17 million over the
Melbourne Cup Carnival
.
[7]
In July 2012, Walsh was involved in a dispute with the
Australian Tax Office
, which demanded he pay $37 million from the profits of his gambling system.
[8]
[9]
In October 2014 Walsh's book
A Bone of Fact
was published. The publisher described it as Walsh's "utterly unconventional and absorbing memoir".
[10]
In the
2016 Australia Day Honours
, Walsh was made an
Officer of the Order of Australia
(AO) for 'distinguished service to the visual arts through the establishment of MONA, and as a supporter of cultural, charitable, sporting and education groups.'
References
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External links
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