The São Paulo Museum of Art (, or ') is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil. It is well known for the architectural significance of its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo Bardi. It is considered a landmark of the city and a symbol of modern Brazilian architecture. The museum was founded in 1947 by Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi, and is maintained as a non-profit institution. MASP distinguished itself by its involvement in several important initiatives concerning

museology Museology (also called museum studies or museum science) is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and ed ...

and

art education Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practi ...

in Brazil, as well as for its pioneering role as a cultural center. It was also the first Brazilian museum to display

post-World War II The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementati ...

art. The museum is internationally recognized for its collection of European art, considered to be one of the finest in both Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere. It also houses an important collection of Brazilian art, prints and drawings, as well as smaller collections of African and Asian art,

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifact ...

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excl ...

, and others, amounting to more than 8,000 pieces. MASP also contains one of the largest art libraries in the country. The entire collection was placed on the Brazilian National Heritage list by Brazil's Institute of History and Art.

History

General context

At the end of the 1940s, the Economy of Brazil, Brazilian economy was going through large structural changes as a result of accelerating industrialization. The city of São Paulo subsequently established itself as the most important industrial hub in the country. Prior to that time, São Paulo's role in modern art had been marked by the Week of Modern Art of 1922. Despite the importance this event had enjoyed in the 1920s, Modernism wouldn't draw much attention of city dwellers and institutions in the following decades. There was only one art museum in São Paulo, the Pinacoteca do Estado, solely devoted to

Academic art Academic art, academicism, or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. This method extended its influence throughout the Western world over several centuries, from its origins i ...

, and a commercial gallery. Assis Chateaubriand, founder and owner of the '' Diários Associados,'' or "Associated Daily Press", the largest media and press conglomerate of Brazil at the time, was one of the most influential individuals of this period. In the late 1940s, Chateaubriand started a campaign to acquire

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

s to form an art collection of international renown in Brazil. He intended to host the museum in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, but ultimately chose São Paulo, where he believed it would be easier to gather the necessary funds, since this city was enjoying a very prosperous moment. At the same time, the European art market had been deeply influenced by the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, making it possible to acquire fine artworks for reasonable prices. With the help of Pietro Maria Bardi, an Italian professor,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

and former owner of galleries in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and Rome, Chateaubriand created a "Museum of Classical and Modern Art". Though he initially planned to lead the project for only a year, Bardi dedicated the rest of his life to it. He moved to Brazil together with his wife, the architect Lina Bo Bardi, and brought along his library and his private art collection.

Beginnings (1947–1957)

The museum was inaugurated and opened to the public on 2 October 1947, displaying the first acquisitions, among them

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...

es by

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

. In these first years of activity, the museum was located on the upper floors of the Diarios Associados headquarters in the

Centro Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Du ...

neighborhood of São Paulo. Architect Lina Bo Bardi was in charge of adapting the building to the needs of the museum, dividing it into four distinct areas: an art gallery, a didactic exposition room about the

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetics ...

, a temporary exhibition room and an auditorium. MASP was the first Brazilian art museum interested in acquiring works of

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

. The museum quickly became a meeting point for artists, students and intellectuals, attracted not only by its holdings, but also by the workshops and art courses it offered. In the 1950s, the museum created the Institute of Contemporary Art (offering workshops of

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

, drawing, painting, sculpture, dance and

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

), the Publicity School (presently Superior School of Propaganda and Marketing), organizing debates about cinema and literature and creating a youth orchestra and a

ballet company A ballet company is a type of dance troupe that performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-rou ...

. The courses were frequently given by important names of the Brazilian artistic scene, such as the painters Lasar Segall and Roberto Sambonet, the architects Gian Carlo Palanti and Lina Bo Bardi, the sculptor August Zamoyski, and the motion-picture technician Alberto Cavalcanti. Along with the amplification of the

educational program An educational program is a program written by the institution or ministry of education which determines the learning progress of each subject in all the stages of formal education. See also * Philosophy of education *Curriculum In education, ...

, the museum expanded its collection and began to be recognized internationally. Between 1953 and 1957, a selection of 100

s housed in the museum traveled throughout European museums, such as Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris) and the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

(London), in a series of exhibitions organized with the intent of consolidating the collection. In 1957, the collection was also displayed in the United States at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York City and in the Toledo Museum of Art. The following year, the holdings of MASP were exhibited at other Brazilian venues, such as the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, in Rio de Janeiro. This established the museum on a global level.

Consolidation of the museum

The collection's rising growth and importance soon required the construction of a building to headquarter the museum. With that purpose, the São Paulo City Hall donated a plot of ground, previously occupied by the Belvedere Trianon – a traditional meeting point of the Paulistano wealthy, which had been demolished in 1951 – to host the first edition of São Paulo Art Biennial. The ground on

Paulista Avenue Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista in Portuguese language, Portuguese, ''Paulistas, Paulista'' being the demonym for those born in the state of State of São Paulo, São Paulo) is one of the most important avenues in São Paulo (city), São Paulo, ...

had been donated to the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

with the condition that the view to the downtown area and the valley of the Nove de Julho Avenue be preserved. The new MASP building was the brainchild of Lina Bo Bardi. To preserve the required view of the downtown area, Bardi idealized a building suspended above ground, supported by four massive rectangular columns made of concrete. The construction is considered to be unique worldwide for its peculiarity: the main body of the building stands on four lateral supporting pillars, generating a free area of 74 meters underneath the sustained building. Constructed between 1956 and 1968, the new site of the museum was inaugurated on 7 November by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

of the United Kingdom during her visit to Brazil. Assis Chateaubriand would not get to see the inauguration of the new building. He died months before, a victim of

thrombosis Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...

. The media empire which he developed had also been facing difficulties since the beginning of the 1960s. Growing debts and the competition in the media market by Roberto Marinho's press conglomerate – caused the scarcity of the funds which had permitted the gathering of the collection. The overthrow of Diários Associados and the death of its founder made the government intervene and pay for some of the debts contracted with foreign institutions. During the government of president

Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. Kubitschek's government plan, dubbed "50 years i ...

Caixa Econômica Federal The Caixa Econômica Federal (, ''Federal Savings Bank''), also referred to as Caixa or CEF, is a state-owned Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. It is the fourth largest banking institution in Brazil, as ...

granted a loan to honor the financial obligations of the institution and secured the loan with its art collections. Years later, in the 1970s, the museum's debt with the Brazilian government was negotiated and paid off. In 1969, in response to a request by the museum, the Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) registered MASP's holdings as part of the national

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

. In the 1970s the museum gained fame in the

Eastern Hemisphere The Eastern Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth which is east of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and west of the antimeridian (which crosses the Pacific Ocean and relatively little land from pole to p ...

by organizing many exhibitions using selected works of its collection at Japanese museums. In 1973, the collection was presented at the Ministry of Foreign Relations in

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

. MASP's collection was presented again in Japan in 1978/79, 1982/83, 1990/91, and 1995. In 1992, works of the French school and Brazilian landscapes were exhibited in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, and in the Biblioteca Luís Angel Aragón, in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

The building

Antigo Predio Classico Abandonado - panoramio

Construction on the present building of the museum began in 1957, and the building was inaugurated in 1968 and has 25 m high. MASP is famous for its remarkable Brazilian

modern architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ...

structure, and it is considered one of the landmarks of city. It is located on the former site of Belvedere Trianon on

, from which it was possible to see the Centro of São Paulo at that time and the Cantareira Mountains beyond. José Borges de Figueiredo, the investor who sold the plot of ground to the City Hall, wrote a non-binding letter to the administration, asking that it to be preserved as a "public place in perpetuity". While in the following years multiple proposed projects ignored his wish, the architect Lina Bo Bardi and engineer José Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz ultimately conceived an underground block as well as a reinforced concrecte in tension suspended structure. The structure stands 8 meters above the ground, supported by 4 pillars connected by two huge concrete beams. A free space of between the pillars was the largest free span in the world at that time. The building inaugurated the so-called protected

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

technique in Brazil. Each of the 2 floors of exposition has some 7 meters of ceiling. In the construction, totalling approximately , there are – besides the permanent and temporary exhibition galleries – library, photo gallery, film gallery, video gallery, 2 auditoriums, restaurant, store, workshop rooms, administrative offices and a technical area. The building's installations and finishing are homely, as Lina Bo herself described: "Concrete visible, whitewash, a flagstone flooring covering the great Civic Hall, tempered glass, plastic walls. Industrial black rubber flooring covering inner spaces. The belvedere is a 'square', with plants and flowers around, paved with parallelepipeds, according to Iberian-Brazilian tradition. There are also water spaces, small water mirrors with aquatic plants.CEDAC
São Paulo 450 anos
Retrieved 2007–6–26. ..I didn't search for beauty. I've searched for freedom". In 2003, the building was also registered as national patrimony by Brazilian Institute for Historic and Artistic Heritage. In the museographic area, Lina Bo Bardi also innovated by using tempered

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

sheets leaned on concrete blocks bases as display supports for the paintings. The intention is to imitate the position of the canvas on the painter's easel, but it also has roots in interwar Italian exhibition design. In the reverse of these supports, which are not used anymore, there were labels with information about the painter and the work. Paradoxically, the museum abandoned this model of exhibition at the end of the 1990s, when the method was beginning to be noticed and implemented by foreign institutions and artists. Between 1996 and 2001, the current administration of the museum undertook a vast and controversial reform. Despite the indispensable restoration of the general structure, dramatic changes implemented by the architect and former director of the institution Julio Neves included the substitution of the original floor conceived by Lina Bo, the installation of a second elevator, the construction of a third underground floor, and the substitution of the water mirrors for gardens. Some architects allege that the reform caused a profound distortion of Lina's original project. In 2021 the museum planned to build a 14-story 72 m high extension with an underground link to its current building, which was completed by the end of 2024 and opened in March 2025. The construction cost R$ 250 million and expanded the exhibition area from 10.485 m² to 21.863 m². The annex, called Edifício Pietro Maria Bardi, was built in a style of a modern black

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monolit ...

, replacing completely the 1954 10-story art-deco styled Dumont Adams Highrise. From 2013 to 2019 there was a negotiation of R$ 13 million with mobile telephone company Vivo to build a 125 m high observation tower, of architect Julio Neves, in the place, but they were unsuccessful.

The collection

The formation of the collection

The main body of the collection was assembled between 1947 and 1960. Pietro Maria Bardi, formerly owner of commercial galleries in

and Rome, was in charge of searching and selecting the works which should be acquired, while Chateaubriand looked for donors and patrons, trying to tempt potential ones with banquets and lavish ceremonies. These methods drew lots of criticism, as was the fact that the museum acquired works of art without the proper corroboration of authenticity. This impression was endorsed by the fact that the museum was at the time, just after WWII, one of the major buyers of art in the international market. Unlike other institutions, whose acquisitions depended on approval of a curators council, the São Paulo Museum of Art usually acquired its pieces quickly, sometimes by

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

. The works of art were generally acquired at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

, Marlborough,

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

, Knoedler, Seligman and Wildenstein. At the end of the 1960s, Chateaubriand's press conglomerate was facing troubles, with growing debts and competition from Roberto Marinho's media companies. The financial difficulties of Diários Associados caused the decline of the museum's financial resources. Consequently, the museum then added to its collection through spontaneous donations of artists, companies and private collectors.

Overview of the collection

The São Paulo Museum of Art collection is considered the largest and more comprehensive collection of

Western art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...

in Latin America. Among the 8,000 works of the museum, the collection of European paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, and

stands out. Early modern French art, French and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

schools of painting are broadly represented, forming the main body of the collection, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish, Dutch, English and German masters. The museum also keeps a significant collection of Brazilian art and ''Brasiliana'', which shows the development of Brazilian art from 17th century to the present. The museum also possesses important holdings of

Latin American art Latin American art is the combined artistic expression of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, as well as Latin Americans living in other regions. The art has roots in the many different Indigenous peoples of the Americas, i ...

and North American art. On a smaller scale, the museum's holdings include representative objects of many periods and distinct non-Western

civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

s – such as African and Asian arts – and others which stand out for their technological, archaeological, historic, and artistic relevance, like the select collections of

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

, Etruscan,

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

antiquities, besides other artifacts of

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

cultures and medieval European art.

Paintings

''Italian school'' :* Tiziano Vecelli (known as Titian) – 1 painting :*

Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...

, Jacopo Comin – 2 paintings :* Giambattista Pittoni – 1 painting, ''Dioniso e Ariadne'' :* Sanzio, Raffaello – 1 Painting, ''

Resurrection of Christ The resurrection of Jesus () is Christian belief that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, starting—or restoring—his exalted life as Christ and Lord. According to the New Testament writing, Jesus w ...

'' :* Botticelli, Sandro – 1 painting, '' Virgin and Child with the Infant John the Baptist'' :* Mantegna, Andrea – 1 painting :* Perugino, Pietro −1 painting :* Allori, Alessandro – 1 painting :* d'Antonio, Biagio – 1 painting :* Bassano, Jacopo (Jacopo dal Ponte) – 1 painting :* Bellini, Giovanni – 1 painting, '' Madonna Willys'' :* Bordone, Paris – 1 painting :*

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

– 1 painting :* di Cosimo, Piero – 1 painting :* Francia, Francesco (Francesco Raibolini) – 1 painting :* Giampietrino (Gian Pietro Rizzi) – 1 painting :* Nelli, Ottaviano – 1 painting :* Reni, Guido – 1 painting :* Saraceni, Carlo – 1 painting :* del Sellaio, Jacopo – 1 painting ''Brazil and the Americas'' :* de Almeida Júnior, José Ferraz – 6 paintings :* do Amaral, Tarsila – 2 paintings :* Américo de Figueiredo e Mello, Pedro – 2 paintings :* Calixto de Jesus, Benedito – 3 paintings :* Di Cavalcanti, Emiliano – 2 paintings :* Malfatti, Anita – 2 paintings :* Meirelles de Lima, Victor – 4 paintings :* Portinari, Candido – 17 paintings :* do Rêgo Monteiro, Vicente – 2 paintings :* Rivera, Diego – 2 paintings :* Segall, Lasar – 2 paintings :* Stuart, Gilbert – 1 painting :* Volpi, Alfredo – 1 painting :* Visconti, Eliseu – 2 paintings ''French school'' Renoir Mlles Cahen d Anvers

:* Bonnard, Pierre – 1 painting :* Cézanne, Paul – 5 paintings :* Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon – 1 painting :* Clouet, François – 1 painting :* Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille – 5 paintings :* Courbet, Gustave – 2 paintings :* Debret, Jean-Baptiste – 1 painting :* Degas (Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas) – 3 paintings :* Delacroix, Eugène – 4 paintings :* Drouais, François-Hubert – 1 painting :* Fragonard, Jean-Honoré – 2 paintings :* Gauguin, Paul – 2 paintings :* Gobert, Pierre – 1 painting :* Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique – 3 paintings :* Lemoyne, François – 1 painting :* Léger, Fernand – 1 painting :* Manet, Édouard – 4 paintings :* Matisse, Henry – 2 paintings :* Mignard, Pierre (and workshop) – 1 painting :* Modigliani, Amedeo – 5 paintings :* Monet, Claude – 2 paintings, including '' Boating on the River Epte'' :* Nattier, Jean-Marc – 4 paintings :* Pater, Jean-Baptiste – 1 painting :* Picasso, Pablo Ruiz – 3 paintings, including '' Portrait of Suzanne Bloch'' :* Poussin, Nicolas – 1 painting :* Renoir, Pierre-Auguste – 12 paintings, including '' Pink and Blue'' :* de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri – 10 paintings :* Vestier, Antoine – 1 painting :* Vuillard, Édouard – 3 paintings ''Spanish school'' :*

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

(Domenikos Theotokopoulos) – 2 paintings :* Goya y Lucientes, Francisco – 4 paintings :* Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban – 1 painting :* Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y – 1 painting, the '' Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares'' :* Zurbarán, Francisco de – 2 paintings ''Dutch, Flemish and German schools'' :* Bosch, Hieronymus – 1 painting :* Cranach, Lucas (the Elder) – 1 painting :* Dornicke, Jan van – 1 painting :* Dyck, Anthony van – 2 paintings :* Hals, Frans – 3 paintings :* Holbein, Hans (the Younger) – 1 painting :* Massys, Quentin – 1 painting, '' Ill-Matched Marriage'' :* Memling, Hans – 1 painting :* Oolen, Jan van – 1 painting :* Post, Frans – 5 paintings :*

– 1 painting, '' Portrait of a Young Man with a Golden Chain'' :* Rubens, Peter Paul(and workshop) – 1 painting :* Ruysdael, Salomon van – 1 painting :* Van Gogh, Vincent – 5 paintings ''English school'' :* Constable, John – 1 painting :* Gainsborough, Thomas – 3 paintings :* Hogarth, William – 1 painting :* Lawrence, Thomas (and workshop) – 2 paintings :* Raeburn, Henry – 1 painting :* Reynolds, Joshua – 1 painting :* Romney, George – 1 painting :* Turner, J. M. W. – 1 painting The museum also has some small collections of photographs, costumes and textiles, kitsch objects, etc.

Claims for Nazi-looted art

The museum faces controversy regarding five sculptures by Edgar Degas which are claimed by the family of Alfred Flechtheim who alleges they were stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

Theft

On 20 December 2007, around 5:09 am, three men broke in to MASP and stole two paintings considered to be among the most valuable pieces in the museum's collection: ''O Lavrador de Café'' (''The Coffee Farmer'') by Cândido Portinari, and the '' Portrait of Suzanne Bloch'' by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. It took the perpetrators just three minutes in total to successfully carry out the heist, using a hydraulic jack and a crowbar. Art experts estimated the value of the paintings to be around $55-56 million in United States dollar, U.S. dollars. Both pieces were recovered by the Brazilian police a few weeks after they were stolen, on 8 January 2008, in the city of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, in Greater São Paulo. Two suspects were arrested, although the Minister of Culture (Brazil), Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, speculated that the thieves were "linked to international gangs." The incident was described as "a major embarrassment" for the museum, which was revealed to have "no alarm system and no sensors. Video security cameras captured some of the raid but, since it had no infrared capability, the images were obscure." Additionally, none of the museum's collection was insured. MASP's president, Julio Neves, stated that they did not have the resources to finance a modern security system, and that they had instead "opted for security by patrolling, with people and cameras"; he promised improvements in light to the incident. Just two months before the robbery, "two thieves tried to break into the museum but were spotted and fled", and in 2005, MASP was forced to close temporarily "when its power was cut off for nonpayment of bills."

Gallery

References

External links

Official websiteVirtual tour of the São Paulo Museum of Art
provided by Google Arts & Culture * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sao Paulo Art Museum São Paulo Museum of Art Art museums and galleries established in 1947 1947 establishments in Brazil National heritage sites of São Paulo (state)