This museum is housed in a colonial mansion in old town Bogotá, Colombia, and is best known for its robust collection of Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s works. It also presents pieces by other worldwide know artists such as Dalí, Chagall, and de Kooning.
I visited this museum for the first time about ten years ago, and had a chance to visit it again in October 2022 with a group of Master’s students from Thunderbird School of Global Management as part of a Global Field Seminar based in Bogotá, which we designed for them.
Museo Botero dates as far back as 1733 when Archbishop Antonio Claudio Álvarez de Quiñónez acquired the land and constructed his official Bogota residence. After his death in 1736, the majority of the Archbishops of Santa Fe took up residence there. During the 19th Century, Bishop Vicente Arbeláez set about improving the residence according to the plans of Bartolomé Monroy. The residence was austere and solemn but had already established itself as a famous Bogotá landmark.
It was known as Palacio Arzobispal when, in 1862 and during the Conservative Revolution, a thousand men caused substantial fire damage to the palace and the adjacent Casa de la Moneda. In 1882, the palace’s archives we attacked by employees of the state.
After 66 years of relative peace for the palace, on 9 April, 1948 it was completely destroyed by protestors during El Bogotazo, the civil unrest that followed the assassination of Colombian presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. This event itself brought ten years of chaos to Colombia as it marked the start of La Violencia, a period of nationwide civil unrest.
The land was acquired by the Banco de la República, along with the opposing block, the location of Biblioteca Luís Ángel Arango, by 1955 the palace had been rebuilt to its present state. The library opened in 1979 and was extended in 1990. In 1986 the former palace temporarily hosted the offices of Colombia’s Palace of Justice and effectively acted as a courthouse for the Supreme Court. The building formerly used for legal proceedings itself having been destroyed by the leftist M-19 guerrilla group the previous year. Coincidentally, the original Palace of Justice had suffered the same fate as the Palacio Arzobispal having been destroyed in the Bogotazo in 1948.
So, the building that we currently know as Museo Botero ultimately completed its journey from archbishop’s palace, to a temporary palace of justice, to a formidable palace of art. In 2000, Colombian artist Fernando Botero, famed for his curvy bronze sculptures and stylised fat portraits, donated his personal collection to the state. The collection comprises 208 works of art, 123 by Boterohimself and a further 85 pieces by internationally recognised artists including works by Dali, Renoir, Chagall, Max Ernst and Picasso.
Photos of some of the pieces of artwork that capture my attention most are presented below:
Marco Serrato 
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