National Museum of Decorative Arts
| Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo | |
 |
|
| Established | 1937 |
|---|---|
| Location | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Type | Art museum |
| Accreditation | Municipal museum |
| Key holdings | Palacio Errázuriz Alvear (1911) |
| Collections |
Luix XV Art deco |
| Director | Alberto Bellucci |
| Owner | Government of the City of Buenos Aires |
| Website | www.mnad.org |
The National Museum of Decorative Arts is an art museum in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The museum has its origins in a marriage in 1897 between two prominent members of turn-of-the-century Argentine high society: Matías Errazúriz, the son of Chilean émigrés, and Josefina de Alvear, the granddaughter of Independence-era leader Carlos María de Alvear.
The couple commissioned French architect René Sergent in 1911 to design a mansion for Errazúriz's future retirement from the diplomatic corps, in which he had been Ambassador to France for a number of years. The ornate Neoclassical structure inspired the Bosch family to commission a similar palace nearby (today the United States Ambassador's residence). Completed in 1916, the couple devoted the following two years to decorating the palace, purchasing a large volume of antiques and other objets d'art.
When Mrs. Errazúriz died in 1935, however, the widower bequeathed the mansion to the Argentine government, on his son's and daughter's advice. The National Museum of Decorative Arts was established in 1937.
Under Law 12351 the Argentine state bought the residence and the art collections which gave birth to the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo on 18 December 1937. The project of the building, a sample of pure eclecticism, was designed by the French architect René Sergent in 1911 but it was finished in 1917 due to the difficulties caused by the First World War. Sergent’s team was a group of selected decorators specialized in interior-decoration and gardens. H. Nelson, G. Hoentschel, M. Carlhian worked the rooms; the gardens were the responsibility of the French expert Achille Duchêne. The materials were brought from Europe: wooden panels, mirrors, marble, woodworks, frames, latches; a number of European artisans were called for some of the stucco decorations. Its imposing and sober façade takes from the French Neo-classicism of the 18th century, especially from the works of Jacques A. Gabriel, architect in the Court of Louis XV. The building has four levels visible from the external façade: on the basement, the windows of the cellars. Gigantic Corinthian columns in the façade cover the two most important levels: the principal floor with round arches leading to the garden and terrace and the first floor where the family rooms were installed. On the top floor, in the attic were the rooms of the servants with the windows hidden by a balustrade.
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