Margin Call: David Walsh’s MONA is a beautiful sinkhole

MONA founder and owner, David Walsh talks about their plans for Motown, a hotel on the MONA premises. Picture: Mathew Farrell

Any wonder eccentric Tassie gambling millionaire David Walsh wants to crank up the commercialisation of his Museum of New and Old Art in Hobart.

MONA is losing more cash than the sorry punters at the nearby Elwick Hotel pokies den.

Walsh this week revealed plans to add $100 million to his “Motown” redevelopment proposal for his contemporary museum.

Artist renders of the propose Motown extension to Hobart's MONA.

All up, the tourist mecca — with a hotel, theatre and conference centre — will cost $400 million. The plan is for it to make MONA — the largest privately funded museum in the southern hemisphere — sustainable when Walsh’s gambling money dries up.

Presently, the arts institution is a beautiful sinkhole.

Most recent accounts show MONA recorded a bottom line loss of $23 million on $32 million in revenue.

The year before that MONA, which trades as Moorilla Estate Pty Ltd, lost more than $18 million on revenue of $29 million.

Walsh declined to comment to Margin Call on its soon to be lodged 2018 numbers, but we hear the losses haven’t stopped.

Records show Walsh has — via his Downward Spiral Enterprises (TAS) Pty Ltd — loaned MONA $132 million. The loan is interest free and has no scheduled repayments.

Official records for the operation warn the whole thing is “economically dependant” on Walsh’s financial support, without which the museum would not endure as a going concern.

Matt Comyn’s Commonwealth Bank has some skin in the arts game too, affording MONA a $1.5 million line of credit, plus an $8 million non-current loan.

Walsh said yesterday it was “too soon to say” whether CBA would be lending for the Motown development.

Not that making money has been a problem for Walsh — at least since he partnered with Zeljko Ranogajec, his mentor in mathematically savvy gambling.