Notes related to Collections

When discussing the growing international recognition of Latin American and Caribbean art, attention often turns to museums, galleries, art fairs, and collectors. Yet some of the earliest and most sustained initiatives emerged outside the traditional art world. This is the case of the art collection of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which, with a history spanning nearly seven decades, today brings together close to 1,800 works from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The citizens' movement challenges the legality of an agreement authorizing the works to remain abroad until at least September 2030, in contradiction with existing legislation on the protection of artistic heritage.

"Things house spirits, or at least sprites, and for the collector—possession is the most intimate relationship that one can have with objects: not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them."
Walter Benjamin: Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting (1931)

Works by Beatriz Cortez, Simón Vega, Walterio Iraheta, and Verónica Vides are now part of one of the most important collections in the world, thanks to a donation by collector Mario Cáder-Frech.

The Casa Nacional del Bicentenario has inaugurated Una Casa. La Casa. Lo doméstico deviene territorios (A House. The House. The Domestic Becomes Territories). This is the first public exhibition of works from the collection of Abel Guaglianone and Joaquín Rodríguez.