The silver building
16,000 aluminium tiles.
Raystormxc — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · José Luiz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0
A free art museum in one of the city's most striking buildings: a twisting, windowless silver mass clad in more than 16,000 hexagonal aluminium tiles that shine in the sun, opened in 2011. It was founded by the businessman Carlos Slim and named after his late wife, Soumaya Domit, who was of Lebanese descent. The museum holds more than 66,000 works spanning thirty centuries, called one of the most complete collections of its kind: sculpture from ancient Mexican civilisations, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art, paintings by European old masters, and works by Dalí and others. Its best-known space is the top floor under the broad white roof, home to one of the largest collections of sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin outside France, including a cast of «The Thinker». You move between floors on a spiral ramp instead of stairs. Entry is free every day. The same plaza holds the Jumex Museum of contemporary art and a shopping centre, so you can spend half a day here.
16,000 aluminium tiles.
The Thinker and more.
Between the floors.
Plaza Carso, Nuevo Granada, Polanco
Its founder Carlos Slim named it after his late wife, Soumaya Domit, a Mexican of Lebanese descent. Entry is free every day.