145 years: Stories from a Collection

2025 National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago de Chile, Chile.

New permanent exhibition of the National Museum of Fine Arts Collection, presented as part of the institution's anniversary celebrations. Based on an unprecedented collective effort by the MNBA team to review archives, documents, memoirs and works, the exhibition recovers the different stories that have shaped the collection of this institution, founded in September 1880. It features a selection of more than 300 works—dating from the 15th century to the present day—by more than 250 artists. The exhibition presents more than 5% of the institution's collection, with pieces by national and foreign artists, allowing visitors to appreciate the extensive, valuable and diverse heritage that is preserved and currently exceeds 6,000 pieces.

145 Years: Stories of a Collection occupies two wings of the museum's second floor and also includes the exhibition Abrir la mirada de Roberto Matta (Opening Roberto Matta's Eyes), which presents fundamental works by this artist in the Chile room. The new permanent exhibition thus covers the entire second floor of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

This major anniversary exhibition highlights the role assumed early on by the State in building a collection of artworks, even before it had a specialised museum. It also seeks to recognise the milestones and contexts in which different administrations and directorships have carried out their management, enabling new interpretations of the history of art in Chile. Thus, it highlights the strengthening of networks between the political and public spheres—such as administrators, congressmen, businessmen, artists, collectors and diplomats—whose dedication made it possible to acquire specific works and authorships through donations or acquisitions.

In this new effort to expand the museum's artistic imagination, the public will be able to revisit several of its most memorable and representative works, as well as discover others that have not been exhibited in many decades and are of great value due to their origin, theme, period or authorship. The diversity and richness of the collection are evident in pieces such as the painting acquired from Celia Castro in 1889—making her the first woman and first Chilean artist to be included in the collection—; the large-format oil painting El suplicio de los avaros (The Torment of the Miserly) by Spanish artist Manuel Benedito Vives, acquired in 1911 after the Centennial exhibition; and the lithograph Leonie by Otto Dix, donated by German businessman Max Roesberg in 1949. This visual richness can also be appreciated in works added in recent years.

Text: MNBA