The artist behind the controversial Ladies Lounge at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) has confirmed the lounge will be closing for good, after a last hurrah in November.
The Ladies Lounge first opened in 2020 and was designed to be a sanctuary for women and refused entry to male patrons.
“Ladies, you are cordially invited for high tea and high-society hobnobbing in the opulent surrounds of the Ladies Lounge,” Mona’s website said.
“The lounge is a tremendously lavish space in our museum in which women can indulge in decadent nibbles, fancy tipples, and other ladylike pleasures — hosted and entertained by the fabulous butler.”
But it didn’t sit well with everyone.
The entrance of Museum of Old and New Art (MONA)’s Ladies Lounge. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Kirsha Kaechele with one of her faked Picasso works. (Supplied: Mona)
Ladies Lounge founder and curator Kirsha Kaechele said there were disgruntled people who wanted to access the lounge.
“I was there at moments when men would be very angry,” she said.
“People were upset but no one took it to court.”
That was until New South Wales man Jason Lau brought an anti-discrimination case against the Museum in March, after being denied entry to the ladies lounge last year.
He initially won in Tasmania’s appeals tribunal in April, but that decision was quashed on appeal in the Supreme Court last month and sent back to the tribunal for reconsideration.
Following the decision, Kaechele described it as a win for women.
“I’m very inspired by the occurrences in the courtroom today. In 30 seconds the patriarchy was smashed,” she said outside court.
“The verdict demonstrates a simple truth: Women are better than men.”
Kirsha Kaechele exiting the Supreme Court with her Ladies Lounge entourage following Mona’s appeal hearing in September. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
Kaechele now says the lounge has “run its course”.
“Now I’m very happy with the Supreme Court ruling, but I feel the work has run its course, and I’d be glad if this is the end,” she said.
“So there’ll be a big celebration, I’ll open it for a period of time, and then really we’ll just go all out — and then close the artwork.”
After the initial tribunal decision, Kaechele moved three of the artworks from the Ladies Lounge that she had said “spectacularly demonstrate Picasso’s genius” to a female toilet.
It was later revealed those artworks were not by Picasso, and that she and a friend had created them.
It’s understood those pieces are no longer on display.
The lounge will open for a last hurrah celebration next month and then be closed permanently.
Kirsha Kaechele at the TASCAT hearing which found the exclusion of men was discriminatory. (ABC News: Andy Cunningham)
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