Mexico City museum with world's richest collection of Kahlo and Rivera works reopens after years of controversy

The Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco, Mexico City, reopened on 30 May after six years of closure and controversy over a proposed relocation. Founded by businesswoman Dolores Olmedo (1908–2002) in a 16th-century hacienda she acquired in the 1960s and converted into a museum in 1994, it holds the world’s largest collection of works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, alongside pre-Hispanic and popular arts. The museum closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2021 its governing trust (run by Olmedo’s descendants) faced backlash after announcing plans to move part of the collection to Chapultepec’s Parque Aztlán, seen as contrary to Olmedo’s wishes. The reopening includes newly accessible private rooms and new galleries, including eight galleries presenting 98 Rivera works arranged chronologically, with the trust’s president Carlos Phillips stating the house-museum concept was reimagined while preserving how Olmedo lived.

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