Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

The **Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía** (**MNCARS**), commonly known as the **Museo Reina Sofía**, is a Spanish museum of 20th-century and contemporary art. It is located in the city of Madrid, Spain.

The museum is housed in the old General Hospital of Madrid, a large neoclassical building from the 18th century. The building is in the Atocha area of the city, near the Atocha train station and the Arte metro station. The hospital was first designed by José de Hermosilla and later continued by Francesco Sabatini. Today it is known as the _Sabatini building_ after this Italian architect. The museum officially opened in 1992, although the building had already hosted temporary exhibitions in previous years. In September 2005, the museum was expanded with the opening of the _Nouvel building_, designed by architect Jean Nouvel.

The Reina Sofía is the southern point of what is known as Madrid's _Art Triangle_, which also includes two other famous museums: the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. It is part of the _Paisaje de la Luz_ (Landscape of Light), a cultural landscape declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 25, 2021.

The museum's permanent collection focuses on major Spanish artists of the 20th century, especially Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró. The collection also includes important works of Surrealism, Cubism, and other modern movements. The museum is one of the most visited in Spain and the world. In 2025, it received 1,601,732 visitors.

The museum is currently directed by Manuel Segade, who was appointed in 2023, replacing Manuel Borja-Villel after fifteen years in the position.

## History

The origins of the MNCARS go back to the **Museum of Modern Art (MAM)**, an institution created in 1894 and opened four years later. It was located in the Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales. Over the years, the collection grew to include many 20th-century works.

In 1951, the museum was divided into two: the National Museum of 19th Century Art and the **National Museum of Contemporary Art**. In 1968, both collections were merged again to form the **Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (MEAC)**.

The current building officially opened on May 26, 1986, as the **Centro de Arte Reina Sofía**, named in honor of Queen Sofía of Spain. In 1988, a royal decree transformed it into a national museum, giving it its current name. It opened its doors to the public on September 10, 1992.

In 2001, construction began on a large extension designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. It was opened on September 26, 2005. The new building increased the museum's floor space by more than 60%, from 51,297 m² to 84,048 m².

## Collection

The collection covers art from the late 19th century to the present day, picking up where the Prado Museum's collection ends. As of September 2014, the museum's inventory included 18,145 works, among them 3,408 paintings, 1,654 sculptures and installations, 3,148 drawings, 5,502 prints, and 3,630 photographs.

### Picasso, Dalí, Miró, and Gris

The museum holds important collections of four major Spanish artists: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Juan Gris.

The most famous work in the museum is Picasso's _Guernica_, one of the most important and iconic works of modern art. Picasso painted it in 1937 for the Spanish Republican Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition. The painting was kept for decades at the MoMA in New York and came to Spain in 1981. It was first displayed at the Casón del Buen Retiro, and then moved to this museum in 1992.

The collection of Salvador Dalí's works is largely due to the painter's inheritance, as he left his property to the Spanish state, divided between this museum and the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. Notable works include _Portrait of Luis Buñuel_, _Girl at the Window_, and _The Great Masturbator_.

The Joan Miró collection was initially built from works donated in 1985 by his widow, Pilar Juncosa, and other heirs: 24 paintings and 203 prints. The collection now includes fifty-five paintings.

### International art

The museum also holds works by many important international artists, including Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, and Diego Rivera, representing movements such as Surrealism, Cubism, Pop art, Minimalism, Arte Povera, and Conceptual art.

## Building

The main building is the old General Hospital of Madrid, a large 18th-century neoclassical building commissioned by King Charles III. Only part of the original project was ever built, which is why the building has a simple, undecorated appearance.

The building was saved from demolition when it was declared a protected building. Renovations began in 1980, and parts of the new museum opened to the public in 1988.

The Nouvel building extension has a triangular floor plan and features a central courtyard under a distinctive red roof.

The museum also has two exhibition spaces in the Retiro Park: the Crystal Palace and the Velázquez Palace, both built by architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. These venues host temporary exhibitions.

## Library and Documentation Centre

The Library and Documentation Centre of the MNCARS is a specialist library in contemporary art. Since 2005, it has been located in the Nouvel building. It contains more than 100,000 books, 3,500 sound recordings, around 1,000 videos, 2,500 periodicals, and 10,500 archival documents.

In 2022, the museum launched _LaDigitaldelReina_, a digital platform containing more than 27,000 digital objects including books, paintings, magazines, audio, and video.

## See also

- Museo del Prado
- Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
- Art Triangle (Madrid)

## Infobox (museum)

- **name**: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
- **established**: 1992
- **location**: Madrid, Spain
- **director**: Manuel Segade
- **website**: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/