The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is Cuba's national art museum — housed in two buildings near the Capitolio, with one dedicated to Cuban art from the colonial period to the present (the Arte Cubano building) and the other to international art (the Arte Universal building, in the former Centro Asturiano). The Cuban collection is the finest in the world and spans the 17th-century colonial portraits, the 19th-century landscapes of Esteban Chartrand, the foundational modernism of Víctor Manuel García and Carlos Enríquez, and the revolutionary-era masters Wifredo Lam, Amelia Peláez, and René Portocarrero.
The international collection is surprising — the Spanish paintings include works by Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán, the British collection has Gainsborough and Reynolds portraits, and there are Greek antiquities, Egyptian mummies, and Etruscan bronzes. The breadth is partly the legacy of Cuba's 19th-century coffee and sugar barons who bought European art on a colossal scale.
Verified Facts
The museum has two buildings: Cuban art and international art
The Arte Universal building was the former Centro Asturiano
The collection includes Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán
Key Cuban masters include Wifredo Lam and Amelia Peláez
Get walking directions
Trocadero & Zulueta, La Habana
