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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.