Costantini Acquires the Daros Collection of Latin American Art

Costantini Acquires the Daros Collection of Latin American Art, to be Added to the Malba in Buenos Aires

Argentine patron and collector Eduardo F. Costantini has announced the acquisition of the Zurich-based Daros Collection of Latin American art, comprised of 1,233 works by 117 artists. These works will be added to the collection of the Malba, the museum founded by Costantini in Buenos Aires, practically doubling its size to three thousand pieces. The Daros Collection includes contemporary art by artists such as Doris Salcedo, Ana Mendieta, Julio Le Parc, Alfredo Jaar, Lygia Clark, and Jesús Rafael Soto. In a statement to ArtNet, Costantini said: “We are thrilled. It’s a great challenge. It completely changes the equation for caring for, storing, preserving, and exhibiting 1,233 more pieces.”

Two masterpieces by Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo will be added to the Malba collection. The collection includes works by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, such as "Spatial Relay" (1959); "Missão/Missões (How to Build Cathedrals)" (1987) by his compatriot Cildo Meireles; and "Physichromie 2" (1959) by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. The Daros Collection also features works by Liliana Porter, Luiz Camnitzer, Guillermo Kuitca, and 42 pieces by Le Parc. Costantini celebrates the return of the Daros Collection to South America, where many of its treasures will be on permanent public display.

To house the Daros Collection, the Malba will undertake a major expansion project, practically doubling its size to 8,500 square meters, reports ArtNet. New exhibition spaces will be built for the growing collection and temporary exhibitions beneath Plaza Perú, the plaza adjacent to the museum. Construction is scheduled to begin next fall, coinciding with the museum's 25th anniversary.

The Daros Latin America Collection was founded in 2000 by Ruth Schmidheiny and her then-husband, the Swiss businessman and philanthropist Stephan Schmidheiny. In 2015, Ruth closed her private museum, Casa Daros, in Rio de Janeiro, after only two years.