Former director of Rio’s Museu de Arte Moderna ordered to pay breach-of-contract fine

A Rio de Janeiro justice court ordered Fábio Szwarcwald, former director of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (Mam Rio), to pay a 100,000 reais (about $20,000) fine for breach of contract. Szwarcwald, who led the museum from 2020 to 2022, resigned after publicly warning about building and collection safety and saying the museum lacked fire insurance from 2006 until 2022; the museum argued his statements harmed its credibility with donors and the art market. The ruling said that even if his claims were true, he violated a contractual confidentiality clause and caused “significant reputational damage,” and it found his contract remained in effect until January 2022. During his tenure, operating costs rose from 14m reais ($2.8m) to 22m reais ($4.3m), while he said fundraising reached around 20m reais ($3.9m) and funded upgrades such as modernized fire/electrical systems and installation of about 80 security cameras (up from 16).

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