The mirror-clad, hourglass tower in Plaza Carso holding Carlos Slim's collection, strongest in Rodin bronzes and European masters, and free to walk into every day.
from $53 optional guided tour; museum entry itself is free, live price on the listing
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The Soumaya is impossible to miss and free to enter. Thousands of mirrored hexagonal tiles wrap the building into a shining hourglass in Plaza Carso, and inside sits one of the largest Rodin collections held anywhere outside France.
The top floor is the headline. It holds a dense gathering of Auguste Rodin bronzes, casts of The Thinker, The Kiss and figures from The Gates of Hell among them, one of the biggest Rodin holdings outside the Musee Rodin in Paris.
The rest of the collection reaches wide rather than deep in any one place. Carlos Slim built it over decades and named the museum for his late wife, Soumaya Domit. You move past European old masters including El Greco, Murillo and Tintoretto, French Impressionists such as Monet, Degas and Renoir, sculpture by Salvador Dali, colonial Mexican painting, and rooms of ivories, coins and decorative objects. It is a private collector's museum, so the hang jumps between centuries and countries more than a national gallery would.
Fernando Romero designed the building, and it is as much a reason to come as the art. The curving silver shell has almost no windows, the galleries spiral around a central core, and the top floor opens under a bright skylit ceiling that suits the Rodin figures. Reactions to the collection vary, but few people leave unimpressed by the room at the top.
Yes. Entry to the Museo Soumaya is free every day, including Mondays when most of the city's museums close. There is no ticket to buy at the door and nothing to reserve for general admission. The only paid product is an optional guided tour, which you can book online.
A guide is worth considering here for one honest reason: the collection is enormous and the labelling is light, so a walk with someone who can pick out the strongest works turns a wander into a proper visit. The tour carries a rating and review count on its listing, and the price is shown there too. If you would rather explore on your own, you lose nothing at the entrance by simply walking in.
Because entry is free and the building is a landmark, weekends and holidays get busy, especially the popular top-floor Rodin gallery. A weekday morning is the calmest time to have the spiral ramp mostly to yourself.
Most visits run about an hour and a half to two hours. The usual route is to take the lift to the top and walk down the spiralling ramp, which carries you gently through the floors and ends near the door.
That top-down flow is the trick to seeing the Soumaya without backtracking, and it means you start with the Rodin room while your feet are fresh. Because the collection is broad, it rewards a light touch: pick the floors that interest you rather than trying to read every label.
The setting makes a natural half-day. The Museo Jumex stands directly across the plaza with a strong contemporary program, and Plaza Carso around them has cafes and shops for a break between the two. Pairing the free Soumaya with the low-cost Jumex is one of the best-value art afternoons in the city.
The Soumaya sits in Plaza Carso in Nuevo Polanco, in the Miguel Hidalgo borough. The nearest Metro is San Joaquin on Line 7, roughly a ten to fifteen minute walk. It opens daily from 10:30 to 18:30, Mondays included.
That daily opening is genuinely useful, because it gives you a serious museum to visit on a Monday when the Frida Kahlo house, the anthropology museum and most others are shut. The table below covers the essentials, and current details are always on the museum's own channels.
| At a glance | Detail |
|---|---|
| Where | Plaza Carso, Nuevo Polanco (Miguel Hidalgo) |
| Nearest Metro | San Joaquin (Line 7), about a 10 to 15 minute walk |
| Opening hours | Daily 10:30 to 18:30, Mondays included |
| Admission | Free; no ticket needed |
| Bookable option | Optional guided tour, price on the listing |
The obvious partner is right across the plaza, and the rest is a short ride south.
The Museo Jumex faces the Soumaya with rotating contemporary shows for a small fee, so the two make an easy back-to-back. For more of the same range of European and Mexican painting, the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museo Nacional de Arte sit downtown, and the great halls of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia are a short hop toward Chapultepec.
Yes. Entry is free every day and there is no ticket to buy for general admission. The only paid product is an optional guided tour that you can book online, with the price shown on its listing.
Yes. Unlike most museums in the city, the Soumaya opens daily including Mondays, from 10:30 to 18:30. That makes it one of the best options for a Monday, when the Frida Kahlo house and the anthropology museum are closed.
Carlos Slim's collection, strongest in Auguste Rodin bronzes on the top floor, with European old masters such as El Greco and Murillo, Impressionists including Monet and Degas, Salvador Dali sculpture, colonial Mexican painting and rooms of ivories and coins.
About an hour and a half to two hours. Take the lift to the top and walk down the spiralling ramp, which flows through the floors and ends near the entrance. Pair it with the Jumex across the plaza for a half-day.
It sits in Plaza Carso in Nuevo Polanco. The nearest Metro is San Joaquin on Line 7, about a ten to fifteen minute walk, and the museum shares the plaza with shops, cafes and the Museo Jumex opposite.
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