The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in Australia.[1] The museum presents antiquities, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection. The museum opened on Friday 21 January 2011 having been described as "macabre and ungodly".[2] Operational costs of A$8 million per annum are underpinned by the winery, brewery, restaurant and hotel on the same site.[3] In May 2011, it was announced that the museum would end its policy of free entry and introduce an entry fee to interstate and overseas visitors while remaining free for Tasmanians.[4]
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The precursor to MONA, the Moorilla Museum of Antiquities, was founded in 2001 by Tasmanian millionaire David Walsh.[5] It closed in 2007 to undergo $75 million renovations. The new museum, designed by Melbourne architect Nonda Katsalidis and built by Hansen Yuncken, is a three level structure built into the cliffs around the Berriedale peninsula.[6]
MONA was officially opened on 21 January 2011, coinciding with the third MONA FOMA festival. The afternoon opening party was attended by 1,350 invited guests. 2,500 members of the public were selected by random ballot for the evening event which included performances by True Live, The Scientists of Modern Music, Wire, Health and The Cruel Sea.[2]
The museum houses over 400 artistic works from David Walsh's private collection. Notable works in its inaugural exhibition, Monanism, include Sidney Nolan's Snake, displayed publicly for the first time in Australia.[7] Wim Delvoye's Cloaca Professional, a machine which turns food into excrement,[6] Stephen Shanabrook's "on the road to heaven the highway to hell", remnants from suicide bomber cast in dark chocolate,[8] and Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary.[6] The curators of MONA are Nicole Durling for Australian contemporary art and Olivier Varenne for international modern and contemporary art.
MONA was criticised heavily by many Tasmanians when it opened and many people have raised concerns that it is inappropriate for children. As of the current time, no response to these concerns has been received and MONA continues to publicly display adult pieces.