The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Almost immediately after its completion in 1973, the ground-breaking building became an icon for a city, a country, a continent.

On the day we arrived in Australia, Jorn Utzon, the Danish architect who conceived the Opera House, died in his sleep without ever having seen his completed masterpiece.

Forty years earlier Utzon had been humiliated by a discredited government Minister and run out of Australia, never to return.

Briefly, here’s what happened.

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