Art Museum Opened in Mexico by the Richest Man in the World

Art Museum Opened in Mexico by the Richest Man in the World

Art lovers, history lovers, curious types or those who just want to see how the rich and famous have will get a kick out of a new museum opened in Mexico City. The new massive art museum was inaugurated by Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, just yesterday. It all was of course a quite public event with a TV show hosted by Larry King, over 1500 guests, including Mexico’s president and famous writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Art Museum Opened in Mexico by the Richest Man in the WorldPhoto courtesy Design Scene

The tourists and art lovers will have to wait a bit longer to see the eclectic collection displayed by the museum, including pre-Hispanic artifacts and sculptures by French masters, as it will only be allowing visito-rs later in March.

Housed by a stunning asymmetrical building in the cities poshest residential areas, Soumaya, the museum named after Slim’s late wife, will exhibit over 60,000 different items, which makes it one of the largest museums in Mexico and the entire Latin America. The idea for the museum, according to Slim, was actually given by his wife who died in 1999.

The six exhibition rooms of the Soumaya museum will feature one of the world’s most significant collections of sculptures by Auguste Rodin, along with masterpieces by Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera, two very famous Mexican muralists.

Even the designer of this exquisite building is part of Slim’s family. Mexican Architect Fernando Romero is his son-in-law. The museum is covered in hexagonal aluinium panels that reflect sunlight. Now that he has started building in the area, Slim plans to expand the museum by adding it a commercial touch – a huge development including offices apartments and shops that will cost over 750 million US dollars just to complete the first phase. Now that the commercial aspect is more than obvious, you can tell how Slim became the richest man in the world…