Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio Centro

After purchasing our concert tickets from Theatro Municipal, we decided to visit the Museum of Fine Arts (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes).  As we walked in, we were greeted by a young lady in English that works for the Museum and told that entry was free today.  She also advised us to put our bags in their lockers which were free also of charge.  This museum allows photos without the flash.  The first exhibit hall we walked into was full of replica statues.  Since I never go a picture of myself with the Nike statue at the Louve, I decided to take one here with the Nike replica.



We walked inside and at first, it appeared that only a couple of halls were open.  But then we learned that we had to walk upstairs to see more exhibits.

 We especially enjoyed the paintings of Santa Teresa (since that is where we were staying). 

This is a photo of a large mural titled "Slave Ship" from 1961 signed E Di Cavalcanti.

Also of unique interest was this wing back chair from Alex Flemming.  Campinas is a city in Sao Paulo state, the rest I'm not sure of since I don't read Portuguese.  It could be political messages.  Disclaimer: It is not my intention to make any political statements in this blog.

The collection turned out to be phenomenal, with art ranging from colonial times of Brazil to modern art.  We probably spent 90 minutes walking around and taking it all in. As we were leaving the museum, we asked our English speaking museum employee if the museum was always free or if today was a special day.  She responded that the administration of the museum decides when to charge admission and when not to charge admission.