One of the world’s most important collections of Latin American art is set to double in size following the acquisition of over 1,000 new works. Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) will accommodate its new holdings with a major expansion, which will be initiated next year to mark its 25th anniversary.
Malba’s founder, the philanthropist and collector Eduardo F. Costantini, announced today that he has acquired the Daros Latinamerica Collection in Zurich, a total of 1,233 works by 117 artists. These additions to Malba’s collection roughly doubles its size to 3,000 works in total. The Argentinian real estate developer said that he was particularly drawn to the Zurich collection’s strength in contemporary art from after 1950, including work by Doris Salcedo, Ana Mendieta, Julio Le Parc, Alfredo Jaar, Lygia Clark, and Jesús Rafael Soto. An impressive 75 artists are new to Malba’s collection.
Costantini said that such a vast, landmark acquisition is requiring a fresh curatorial approach. “It’s a major step forward,” he said in a phone call. “It changes all the equations to look after, store, preserve, and show 1,233 more pieces. We are excited but it’s very challenging.”
Julio Le Parc, Lumière visualisée (1962). Courtesy of Malba.
‘Wish List’ Artworks
Some works that he has bought were on Costantini’s wish list for decades. He had been searching for an “outstanding” Salcedo for almost 30 years. Now he has two masterpieces by the Colombia sculptor. Other highlights for the Argentine include Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica’s Relevo espacial (1959), fellow Brazilian Cildo Meireles’ Missão/Missões (Como construir catedrais) (1987), and Fisicromía 2 (1959) by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez.
The Daros collection has a particularly extensive holding of some standout artists. This includes Liliana Porter, Luiz Camnitzer, Guillermo Kuitca, and 42 pieces by Le Parc, many of which had previously been borrowed by Malba for its 2014 retrospective of the Argentinian artist. Costantini welcomes the return of the works in the Daros collection to the region of South America, where many gems will be on permanent public display.
The new contemporary art pieces will complement Malba’s existing collection, which is already strong in Modernist Latin American art. Some of the museum’s crowing masterpieces are by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Tarsila do Amaral, Remedios Varo, and Roberto Matta.
Doris Salcedo, Untitled (1998). Courtesy of Malba.
Malba will accommodate the Daros works with a major expansion project, roughly doubling its size to reach up to 90,000 square feet. New exhibition spaces for the growing collection and temporary shows will be built underneath Plaza Perú, the square adjacent to the museum. Construction is slated to start next fall, following celebrations marking 25 years since the Malba was founded in September 2001.
Growing Demand for Latin American Art
Costantini has long been renowned for his signifiant collection of Latin American art. Last year, his winning bid for Leonora Carrington’s Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) at Sotheby’s New York set a new $28.5 million record for the British Surrealist, who spent many decades living in Mexico after World War II. The mystical marvel is currently a standout in the “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100” exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Growing interest in Modern Latin American art in recent decades has made the market particularly competitive.
“When I started, institutions didn’t have the acquisition program or Latin American curator posts that they have now,” Costantini said. “So I managed to buy superb pieces for a reasonable price.” He estimated that one Kahlo he bought for $3 million would now be worth more than $100 million, pushing it out of his price range.
Cildo Meireles, Missão/Missões (Como construir catedrais) (1987). Courtesy of Malba.
Some of Costantini’s most prized gems would be “impossible to gather nowadays,” he said, making the acquisition of the Daros collection a particularly unique opportunity.
The Daros Latinamerica Collection was established in 2000 by Ruth Schmidheiny and her then-husband, the Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Stephan Schmidheiny. In 2015, Ruth closed her $26 million private museum Casa Daros in Rio de Janeiro after just two years. For the past decade the collection has loaned works to international exhibitions, including “Tools for Utopia,” a survey of Latin American abstract and concrete art at the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2020.