Carlos Slim Opens Flashy Museum In Mexico

In Mexico City, the world's richest man has just opened a new museum to showcase his extensive European and Mexican art collection.

The Soumaya Museum in Mexico City was designed by Carlos Slim's son-in-law and houses Slim's collection of more than 65,000 pieces. It is dominated by works from European and Mexican artists.

Carlos Slim invested more than $800 million in the Soumaya Museum, the second museum opened by the telecommunications mogul. Here, he stands with Auguste Rodin's The Three Shades on March 28, the eve of the opening.

A bronze cast of Michelangelo's Pieta is on display at the new Soumaya Museum in Mexico City. The original work is a white marble sculpture. "It's unclear to me why anybody would want a bronze version of it, and why you would display such a thing in an art museum, since it is neither a Michelangelo nor a close approximation of the Michelangelo," says art history professor James Oles.