Museo Nacional de Arte

The Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City houses a vast collection of Mexican art from the mid-16th to mid-20th century, offering a comprehensive view of the nation’s artistic evolution.

Planning your visit

MUNAL occupies a Beaux-Arts palace built between 1904 and 1911 as the Ministry of Communications, and the building — marble staircases, ironwork, a monumental interior — is part of the visit. Outside stands El Caballito, the equestrian bronze of Charles IV cast in 1802, one of the largest bronzes in the world at the time and a survivor of Mexico's periodic reckonings with its colonial monuments.

The collection covers Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century, arranged chronologically across three floors: viceregal religious painting, the academic nineteenth century, the landscape tradition of José María Velasco whose views of the Valley of Mexico are among the finest of their kind anywhere, and the early twentieth century up to the muralists.

That span makes it the best single account of how Mexican art developed, filling the gap between the pre-Columbian collections and the modern museums.

It sits in the historic centre. Allow two hours. The main booking is an entry ticket. Current availability is listed below.