The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (''Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói'' — MAC) is situated in the city of

Niterói Niterói () is a List of municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, in the Southeast Region, Brazil, southeast region of Brazil. It lies across Guanabara Bay, facing the city of Rio de ...

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 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and is one of the city’s main landmarks. It was completed in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. The MAC-Niterói was designed by

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was b ...

with the assistance of structural engineer Bruno Contarini, who had worked with Niemeyer on earlier projects. The structure is 16 meters high; its

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

has a diameter of 50 meters with three floors. The museum has a collection of 1,217 works from the art collector João Sattamini. The collection was assembled since the 1950s by Sattamini, constituting the second largest collection of contemporary art in Brazil. The museum projects itself over ''Boa Viagem'' (“Bon Voyage,” “Good Journey”) beach and also a neighborhood, the reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base “like a flower,” in the words of Niemeyer. A wide access slope leads to a Hall of Expositions, which has a capacity for sixty people. Two doors lead to the viewing gallery, through which can be seen Guanabara Bay,

, and

Sugarloaf Mountain Sugarloaf Mountain (, ) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a peninsula at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Rising above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf suga ...

. The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliffside, at the bottom of which is a beach. In the film ''Oscar Niemeyer, an architect committed to his century'', Niemeyer is seen flying over Rio de Janeiro in a UFO which then lands on the site, suggesting this to be the origin of the museum.

MAC Scandal

The MAC Scandal was a

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

that surrounded the acquisition of land for the museum. The sub-mayor of Niterói's Oceanic Region, Zeca Mocarzel, convinced the owner of the land that construction rights were locked by the city council and, therefore, were able to purchase the land at a low price. When the mayor, Jorge Roberto Silveira, sent the museum project to the city council to obtain the rights to construction, it was accepted in only two days. After the inauguration of the MAC, which substantially increased the property values of nearby areas, the land was sold for more than 5 million reals (approximately 1,250,000 US dollars) in 1996. Because the land deal took place just before Christmas, the people of Niterói said that it was a Christmas present that Jorge Roberto Silveira, Zeca Mocarzel and João Sampaio's (another long-time Niterói politician) gave to themselves.

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This place served as the 11th Pit Stop of the television series '' The Amazing Race 18'' and the 8th Pit Stop of ''

The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel 2 ''The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel 2'' is the second season of ''The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel'', a Latin American version of the American reality television show ''The Amazing Race (American TV series), The Amazing Race''. It featur ...

''. It also appears in an American TV commercial for the game '' The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask'' in 2000.

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Satellite picture by Google Maps

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum Modernist architecture in Brazil Buildings and structures completed in 1996 Art museums and galleries in Brazil Oscar Niemeyer buildings Art museums and galleries established in 1996 1996 establishments in Brazil Museums in Rio de Janeiro (state) Niterói National heritage sites of Rio de Janeiro (state)

MAC Scandal

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See also

References

External links