Carlos Slim's Soumaya Museum Dazzles and Disappoints in Mexico City

We’ve been tracking the Soumaya Museum in Mexico city since it was very much a work in progress. Built to house the art collection of billionaire — and, according to Forbes, richest man in the world — Carlos Slim, the roughly $70-million private museum was designed by the mogul’s son-in-law Fernando Romero. It opened to the public on March 28th, and while Record will publish a full analysis in the near future, a few publications have already weighed in on the project.

Nicholas Casey at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Magazine outlined how the combination of Slim’s staggering wealth and vast collection, matched with Mexico city’s emergence as an art destination and Romero’s ambition (honed while working for Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas early in his career), gave birth to the structure.

Read the full story: The Emperor's New Museum

But the least dazzled assessment of the design that we’ve seen comes from Benjamin Genocchio at Artinfo.com, who writes:

“[Romero] didn't get the contract on merit, at least if the final building is a guide. It is baldly derivative structure with the young architect taking open inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York for the interior and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao for the exterior.”

Read the full critique here: Carlos Slim's Museo Soumaya: Money Can't Buy Taste