Lindsey Hogg has a twinkle in his eye. “You’ll be the fourth person in my bedroom today. Not bad, eh?” he says. The 80-year-old has endured a long morning of back-to-back meetings, but he’s visibly energised as we catch sight of the painting that dominates the room: The Crucifixion by British artist Stanley Spencer.

A few months ago, Hogg was an anonymous businessman running two little-known chemicals companies in Melbourne. But that all changed in October when The Australian Financial Review revealed how he had spent 40 years quietly assembling a $500 million art collection which he intended to give to the state of Victoria. How? By building a $50 million art gallery complex at Harkaway, a semi-rural hamlet south-east of Melbourne.