Museo de Bellas Artes / Fine Arts Museum

In 2019, the decision about who would complete the extension of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum was made known, with Norman Foster and Luis María Uriarte having won the public bidding process. The project, called Agravitas, consists of an impressive floating gallery that measures 2,000 m2 and sits atop the two current buildings, constructed in 1945 and 1970. Building works for the new structure, which will be for temporary exhibitions, will begin in mid-2021 and wrap up towards the end of the following year.

This expansion is coming together partly thanks to the work of the Museum’s director, Miguel Zugaza, who has skillfully watched over the establishment since 2017. His 15 years at the helm of the Prado Museum and his boldness when putting together innovative exhibitions (like the Alicia Koplowitz Collection) have brought the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum into a new era, and the construction of this structure by the award-winning architect from London will do nothing less than reaffirm this gallery’s importance.

Although its architecture –both present and future– is of great relevance, there is no doubt that what makes the Fine Arts Museum so striking is its exquisite collection, made up of more than 14,300 pieces (nearly 2,200 paintings, 500 sculptures, 10,400 works on paper, and 1,200 applied arts pieces), of which only around 5% are on display.the collection includes masters as important as El Greco, Francisco de Goya, Joaquin Sorolla, Paul Gauguin, Francis Bacon, Antoni Tapies, and Miquel Barceló. In addition, the museum has managed to gather the largest existing collection of Basque art, made up of more than 4,000 pieces by big names such as Aurelio Arteta, Jorge Oteiza, Ignacio Zuloaga, and Eduardo Chillida.

Among the gallery’s most noteworthy pieces are Lucretia by Lucas Cranach The Elder, The Rape of Europa by Martin de Vos, The Annunciation by El Greco, Saint Sebastián Tended by the Holy Women by José de Ribera, Saint Peter in Tears by Murillo, Lot and His Daughters by Orazio Gentileschi, Portrait of Martín Zapater by Francisco de Goya, Kissing the Relic by Sorolla, Seated Woman with a Child by Mary Cassatt, Washerwomen in Arles by Paul Gauguin, Portrait of the Countess Mathieu de Noailles by Zuloaga, as well as the more recent Lying Figure in Mirror by Francis Bacon, Trembling Irons IV by Chillida, Bilbao by Richard Serra, and Large Oval by Antoni Tàpies.

With this impressive collection of paintings and sculptures, and with the determination to grow with which the Museum wishes to ring in the new decade, it is not surprising that Bilbao has been able to break into the international museum circuit, becoming one of Europe’s “must-see” art destinations.