Australia's newest museum – one that focuses on the decorative arts – was launched by Paul Keating on Friday, 3 June. (It is open to the public, by appointment only, from 7 June 2016.) Positioned in North Adelaide, The David Roche Foundation is home to a superb collection of European eighteenth- and nineteenth-century objects and paintings. David Roche (1930–2013) was a passionate collector and champion dog breeder and judge throughout his life. His deep pockets, through abundant family money, enabled him to buy the best, buy often, and buy a great deal.

The collection comprises some 3,500 items, includes furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, sculpture, and paintings, with particular strengths in neo-classical design from Britain, France, and Russia. Highlights from the collection were displayed at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2008, and the exhibition catalogue, Empires and Splendour (which I edited), is still available from AGSA or the Foundation. The collection is displayed throughout Roche's former house and in an adjoining purpose-built pavilion. Together, they offer a dazzling and superbly presented encounter with the finest quality objects of design and luxury that Roche collected over a lifetime. (He made his first purchase as a teenager; his first major acquisition followed in the 1950s: a Regency sofa.)