DAVID Walsh, private collector, professional gambler and agent provocateur, has unveiled his latest artistic offering to Melbourne at the Republic Tower on La Trobe Street.

The work, by Polly Borland, an Australian artist now living in Britain, features a woman she saw on the street in 2003.

"She was extremely tall and captivating in her style, like a 1950s starlet," Borland told The Guardian newspaper in May. "One day, it just came to me that I should be taking photos of her. So I found out she was called Gwen and where she worked, and marched in there and gave her my phone number."