Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art Plans Outpost in Thailand
6July 10, 2026
TheMuseum of Old and New Art (Mona)in Tasmania, Australia has just announced plans to build an outpost museum in Bangkok; specifically, plans indicate that the new site, called Mona Bangkok, will be located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. Mona, the largest private museum in Australia, is executing the new museum with the aid of Asset World Corporation (AWC), a Thai real estate powerhouse. Mona Bangkok will stand as AWC’s first venture into the art world.
Under the fifteen-year agreement between Mona and AWC that’s been established to facilitate the construction of the new museum, Mona will be responsible for Mona Bangkok’s collection, exhibition design, curation, and architecture, while AWC will own the museum, manage its operations, and oversee its build.
Since opening in 2011, Mona has showcased both contemporary art and antiquities, including work by Jenny Saville, James Turrell, and Picasso. The museum, which was designed by the Australian architecture firm Fender Katsalidis, was founded by Australian multimillionaire and professional gambler David Walsh, a raconteur with an eccentric perspective on museum programming.
Mona’s free-spiritedness has at times been reflected in its business operations: in 2025, Walsh confirmed that the museum had lost $408 million since it opened in 2011, but asserted that he is “completely happy with the finances.”
Leigh Carmichael, the CEO of DarkLab, the creative subsidiary of Mona will lead the Mona Bangkok project under Walsh’s instruction.
“Bangkok feels like exciting territory for growth,” Carmichael told the Art Newspaper. He added that the concept of light has already emerged as a driving inspiration for the new space, which he says is expected to open in 2029. Mona Bangkok, Carmichael said, “will take the creative spirit of Mona but come up with a new concept.”