Museo Soumaya

Soumaya Museum

Museo Soumaya
Exterior of the Plaza Carso building, 2014
Location	Nuevo Polanco, Mexico City
Coordinates	19°26′27″N 99°12′16″W / 19.440806°N 99.204583°W / 19.440806; -99.204583
Type	Art museum
Accreditation	ICOM; Mexican ILM; FEMAM
Collection size	66,000+
Visitors	1.1 million (2013) Ranked 1st nationally Ranked 56th globally
Founder	Carlos Slim
Director	Alfonso Miranda
Owner	Carlos Slim Foundation
Public transit access	Metro Polanco   Línea 7
Website	soumaya.com.mx
Building details
Design and construction
Architect	Fernando Romero

1.1 million (2013)

The Museo Soumaya, designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, is a private museum in Mexico City. It is a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings in Mexico City - Plaza Carso and Plaza Loreto. It has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art and an extensive repertoire of works by European old masters and masters of modern western art such as Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dalí, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Tintoretto. It is considered one of the most complete collections of its kind. The museum is named after Soumaya Domit, who died in 1999, and was the wife of the founder of the museum Carlos Slim. The museum received an attendance of 1,095,000 in 2013, making it the most visited art museum in Mexico and the 56th in the world that year. In October 2015, the museum welcomed its five millionth visitor.

The Museo Soumaya has a collection of over 66,000 pieces of art. The majority of the art consists of European works from the 15th to the 20th centuries. It also holds Mexican art, religious relics, and historical documents and coins. The museum contains the world's largest collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial era coins. It also holds the largest collection of casts of sculptures by Auguste Rodin outside France and the world's largest private collection of his art. Slim owns a total of 380 casts and works of art by Rodin. His late wife, whom he credits with teaching him much of what he knows about art, was an admirer of Rodin's work. In addition to Rodin, some notable European artists whose work is displayed include Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, the circle of Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Joan Miró, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, El Greco, and Tintoretto. The most valuable work of art in the collection is believed to be a version of Madonna of the Yarnwinder by a member of the circle of Leonardo da Vinci. Another version of the same painting has been valued at over £30 Million.