Museo Botero

In 2000 Botero donated over two hundred works - a hundred and twenty-three of his own and eighty-five by other artists from his personal collection - to the Banco de la Republica, on conditions that shaped how it is shown: the collection must stay together, must never be sold or loaned, and entry must be free. The foreign works are substantial: Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Chagall, Miro, Dali, Bacon and Giacometti among them, which makes this the strongest collection of European modern art in the country. His own paintings and sculptures fill the rest, with the inflated volumes he is known for applied to portraits, still lifes and reworkings of old masters. The building is a colonial house round courtyards.

History

Fernando Botero collected art from the late 1960s, first pre-Columbian pieces, then colonial art and modern drawing, painting and sculpture, and until 1999 his collections were spread across his homes in New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and Pietrasanta. He had thought of giving them to the Museum of Antioquia in Medellín, but accepted the offer of Bogotá's mayor Enrique Peñalosa to give them to the nation through its central bank, and in 2000 he donated 208 works, 123 of his own and 85 by other artists, to the Bank of the Republic. The museum opened free of charge in a colonial mansion in La Candelaria on 1 November 2000, and on 16 April 2012 the whole donation was declared an asset of cultural interest of the nation (Wikipedia, Museo Botero).

What's there

• 123 works by Botero - painting and sculpture.
• 85 works from his own collection - Picasso, Monet, Degas, Bacon.
• Free entry, by donation condition - and the collection cannot be split.
• A colonial house round courtyards - in La Candelaria.

When to go

Year round; closed Tuesdays. Two hours.

What to expect

It is free and correspondingly busy at weekends. Closed Tuesdays. The adjoining Casa de Moneda and art collections are separate spaces on the same site and worth the extra time. Labelling is largely Spanish with some English.

Nearby

The Gold Museum is a few blocks north; the Plaza de Bolivar is south.

Key facts