He has titled his lecture ‘Paradise on Earth’, and in the past forty minutes has guided the audience on a mosaic journey beginning in ancient Greece, passing through the Middle East, lingering in the Byzantine era, moving on to Renaissance Rome and Ravenna, and concluding here in Melbourne.

‘Melbourne,’ he tells them, ‘is Australia’s mosaic capital.’

He shows them slides of the Block Arcade, of St Paul’s Cathedral, of the magnificent floor at 333 Collins Street. Each image draws appreciative recognition from the audience. He then projects a slide of the façade of Newspaper House. This art-deco mosaic, with its near-naked figures set among symbols of scientific progress and its inspiring caption, ‘I’ll put a girdle around the earth’, this mosaic located in central Melbourne is unknown to all but a few. He hears gasps and murmurs: how can they not know of this beauty right here in their own city?

He pauses for exactly thirty seconds — he calculated this break when rehearsing at home — a pause long enough to absorb the shock of not knowing the Newspaper House mosaic, but not so long that people will start thinking of the post-lecture wine and cheese. He looks out over the hall, slowly he moves his head from left to right as if to gather everyone in his gaze — also rehearsed at home — before arranging his features into a light smile: he has something special for them, he says. Keeping his gaze on the audience, he clicks the remote control and the first slide appears. It depicts the exterior of Leningrad’s Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood, seen at a distance from along Griboyedov Canal. With its cupolas of gold and gorgeously coloured ceramics, the church looks like a fairytale castle.

Click.

Closer now, and the external mosaics are visible with their divine figures sparkling with gold. Also seen are the small, multi-coloured tiles capping the mini towers and arches, and the elaborate plaster mouldings around the shapely windows and panels. It is as if the art of the entire world has been incorporated on this single building.

Click.

‘This,’ he says, ‘is the Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood in Leningrad, where I spent several months during the last European winter.’ He allows a brief pause. ‘While the exterior of the church is magnificent, as you can see, it was the interior that brought me to Leningrad.’

Click.