Museum Soumaya by the Richest Man in the World

The Soumaya Museum forms part of the Carlos Slim Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by the Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim Helu, who figured as the wealthiest man in the world in Forbes list of the wealthiest billionaires of 2011.

The Carlos Slim Foundation has the mission to establish a range of non-lucrative projects in education, health, justice and personal and community development, by contributing human and financial resources to equip Mexican society with the necessary tools to succeed professionally and socially. As part of the Carlos Slim Foundation, The Soumaya Museum's vocation is to collect, conserve, diffuse and exhibit artistic testimonials of Mexico and Europe.

The Soumaya is also committed to integrate the secluded world of art to a broader spectrum of society, through programs for children, youth, adults, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

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Currently, the Soumaya Museum has an impressive catalogue of more than 64 thousand works of art –gathered from cash and in-kind donations-, all pertaining to the personal collection that Carlos Slim Helu compiled throughout the years (something that confirms his status as the richest man in the world).

Among its collections are:

• The Old European Masters, with works pertaining to the Italian, French, Germanic and Spanish schools, which belong to the XV-XVIII centuries, and include artists like Cranach, Tintoretto, el Greco, Rubens, Artemisia Gentileschi and Murillo, among others.

• The New-Hispanic and South American Art, represented by interesting samples of different forms of art such as paintings, sculptures, ivories, coins, medals and myriad objects of the colonial household furniture.

• A relevant collection of sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin -the second largest in the world outside France-, sculptures that marked the advent of modernity.

• Salon Paris, an impressive sculpture collection which includes, not only some of Rodin master pieces, but also work by some of his students (Camille Claudel and Émile-Antoine Bourdelle) and a few artists that preceded him (Carrier-Belleuse, Carpeux and Daumier), alongside a group of surrealistic sculptures by the one and only Salvador Dali.

• Emblematic works of French Impressionism by Corot, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, van Gogh, Vlaminck, Chagall and Miró, European painters that touched the aesthetic vision of Mexican artists like Clausell, Romano Guillemín, Zárraga and Dr. Atl, whose work is also on display. If you would like to read more about this particular collection please go to the article "Impressionism: Mexican vs European Impressionist Art".

• Portrait and landscape painting of the nineteenth century in Mexico.

• The European and Mexican Vanguard is present with pieces by the likes of Picasso and Dali, on the European side, as well as Siqueiros, Orozco, Tamayo, Rivera and Montenegro Soriano, internationally recognized Mexican artists. Two murals by the renowned Mexican painter, Rufino Tamayo, mark the beginning and the end of the visit. If you would like to learn more about the Mexican Vanguard please go to the article "Rivera, Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, the Three Great Ones of Muralism".

All in all, the Museo Soumaya offers to national and international audiences, a journey through six centuries of European and Mexican art.

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……"I think we must find a way to make everything that’s essential and desirable universally accessible; therefore, we believe in the importance of this museum as part of the Mexican population, making this building and its art collection available to the city and the country, with the intention and commitment to contribute to the education and development of human capital, seeking to enrich and share art history, world culture and Mexican history".

-Carlos Slim Helu

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The Soumaya Museum opened its doors to the general public in 1994 but has recently re-inaugurated in a new, very modern, asymmetric building of avant-garde structure and design. The building has a spiraling corridor that takes one up & down the six exhibition floors, which are more accurately described as open spaces, with enclosed areas, where each collection is displayed.

The building is located in a central area of the city which is becoming increasingly more up-stat with the newly built museum.

• Architect: LAR / Fernando Romero
• Temporal and permanent exhibit area: 7517m².
• Opening hours: 10:30 to 18:30 Monday through Sunday.
• Admission: free.