Uh oh. A couple of weeks ago, when I wrote about the ham-handed opening of Carlos Slim’s Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, I noted that we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth — and said that, with regard to the museum and collection itself, I awaited reviews from people who had seen it in person.
Now those comments are starting to come in. And they are bad. I recently spoke with two people who made the trek to Mexico City, and both were negative about both the building and the collection.
Then, earlier this week, Benjamin Genocchio, editor of Art + Auction, published his review on ArtInfo. It began, tragically:
There is something tragic about the Museo Soumaya, the spectacular-looking private museum in Mexico City that opened to the public on March 28. It is owned and operated by the Carlos Slim Foundation and contains the collection of the world’s richest man, Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim. With so much money at his disposal I was expecting to see something extraordinary. But unfortunately it falls short.
And on many levels, as Genocchio goes on to detail. Though many of the galleries are only partly installed, he said those he saw were largely populated with second-rate works by Impressionists and Modern masters. His bottom line: “a vanity museum gone right in some areas, but in too many other aspects gone wrong.”
I would be surprised if there’s divergence of opinion on this in the art world. Then again, the public may love Soumaya…
UPDATED, on 4/18/2011: opinion from Art in America doesn’t disagree.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images