5 Museums That Map Mexico City, From Ancient Ruins to Reinvention

"It's said that Mexico City has more museums than any city on earth. Estimates put the count somewhere between 150 and 200, and whether that edges out Paris depends on what you're willing to include, but the reputation holds. Museums accumulated through the 20th century-everything from government-funded historical collections, to university galleries, to private foundations, t0 archaeological sites roped off in the middle of a residential neighborhood."

"Mexico City sits at an altitude of 7,350 feet, ringed by volcanoes you can see from downtown on days when the pollution clears. February through April, the jacarandas bloom purple, the weather hovers around 70 degrees most days, and the notoriously chaotic metropolis of 22 million feels, however briefly, well-calibrated. It's walkable if you stay in certain neighborhoods, and the density means you can hit three museums before lunch with little planning."

"Diego Rivera spent decades amassing pre-Hispanic artifacts-walking construction sites and farmland in southern Mexico City, ground that had been occupied continuously for millennia, where the remnants of ancient civilizations lay buried beneath a thin layer of topsoil. (Such sites are now designated as archaeological or ecological reserves but were then utterly unguarded, yielding objects that could be yours if you happened to waltz by after a heavy rain)."

Mexico City contains between 150 and 200 museums spanning government historical collections, university galleries, private foundations, and archaeological sites embedded in neighborhoods. The city sits at 7,350 feet, ringed by visible volcanoes; jacarandas bloom purple from February through April and temperatures often hover around 70°F. Dense, walkable neighborhoods allow visiting multiple museums in a single morning. Since 2003, Zona Maco grew into Latin America's largest art fair and spawned an annual Art Week with fairs like Material Art Fair and Salón ACME. Collectors and institutions converge for retrospectives and ambitious gallery programming. Diego Rivera collected over 60,000 pre-Hispanic artifacts and sought a proper home for them.

Read at Artnet News