The Museo Botero, also known as the Botero Museum, is an art museum located in La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. It houses mostly works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, however it also includes artwork by other international artist that were of Botero's own private art collection.
Since the late 1960s, Colombian artist Fernando Botero had been a noted art collector, initially of pre-Columbian pieces, later of colonial art and more recently of drawing, painting and universal modern sculpture. Until 1999, all of his collections were scattered throughout his properties in New York, Paris, Monte Carlo and Pietrasanta, as well as in a Swiss bank deposit in Bogotá.[3]
Since the mid-1990s, Botero had raised the possibility of donating his entire art collection to the Museum of Antioquia in Medellín. However, the slowness in making decisions by the Antioquia authorities led him to accept the proposal of the then mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, to donate his collection to the nation via its central bank.[2]
In the year of 2000, the Colombian artist Fernando Botero donated 208 art pieces, 123 of his own making and 85 of other international artists, to the Bank of the Republic. The museum is administered by Banrepcultural.[4] With this collection, the Botero Museum was founded in the neighborhood of La Candelaria, the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that was acquired by the Bank of the Republic and made suitable to house the art collection by Fernando Botero himself. Since November 1, 2000, the museum has been open to the public free of charge.[5]
In the same year, Botero's collection arrived in Colombia after an exhibition at the Fundación Santander Central Hispano in Madrid (Spain). After donating these works to Bogotá, at the request of the Antioquia authorities, the artist also decided to donate a significant set of pieces of his authorship to the Museum of Antioquia, in addition to a set of sculptures for the Botero Plaza (in front of said Museum), in Medellin. Although most of the collection of international artists had been donated by Botero to Bogotá, he decided to put together a new set of about 21 pieces (Matta, Lam, Stella, Rodin, among others), to donate to the Museum of Antioquia.[3]
Per the Ministry of Culture Resolution 565, of 16 April 2012, the entirety of the collection donated by Fernando Botero was voted on by the National Council of Cultural Heritage of Colombia as an asset of cultural interest for the nation.[6]
During the funeral ceremonies of Fernando Botero in Colombia, the coffin of the artist laid in repose in the courtyard of the museum.[7]
The collection of works by Fernando Botero includes numerous oil paintings, drawings, pastels, sanguines and sculptures made by him, especially during the most recent decades. His earliest production (in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s) is not represented in this museum. Works from his initial artistic periods can be found in the permanent exhibition of the Colombian National Museum, also in Bogotá.[9]
The collection includes a Boterian version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, identified by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia as one of the most important Botero paintings.[10]
The collection also includes a part of the first series on violence in Colombia (Pablo Escobar, Tirofijo, Carrobomba, La massacre de Mejor Esquina, etc.), among others. The latest series on violence in Colombia is part of the collection of the National Museum of Colombia.[2]
Fernando Botero's Private Collection
In addition to the donation of his own work, Botero donated the entirety of his private art collection that included works by 85 different artists that include:
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