Happy Sunday, people. On this day in history in 1867, the British Parliament passed the British North America Act, which created the Dominion of Canada as part of the British Commonwealth. Pursuant to that act, Canada became a country effective July 1, 1867 (although it didn’t become fully independent of the British Parliament until 1982).
This week’s featured image comes to you from a different part of North America: Mexico City, where a new art museum opened in 2011. Called El Museo Soumaya, it was built to house the collection of Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helú, who according to Forbes is the second wealthiest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $77.1 billion. (Bill Gates, of course, ranks no. 1 on the Forbes list.) Designed by Fernando Romero with assistance from the firm of the legendary Frank Gehry, the aluminum-clad exterior certainly has a distinctive appearance:
The interior is kind of a knock-off of New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, with ascension between levels accomplished via a gently sloping ramp that curves around the outermost portion of the floor plan. (There’s also an elevator.) Here’s a bonus photograph showing a representative portion of that Guggenheim-esque ramp:
The collection’s particular strengths include sculptures by Rodin and Dali. In addition to numerous artworks by Mexican artists (including of course Diego Rivera), you can also see paintings by the likes of Rubens, Monet, Miró, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Tintoretto, and El Greco (although in many cases those paintings would fall into the category of “Famous artists’ lesser-known works”). As of 2013, the Soumaya was the most-visited art museum in Mexico and the 56th most-visited museum in the world.
These photos were taken during my visit to Mexico City in May 2011 — just two months after the museum’s opening, and during the weekend when Mexico became the 23rd country on my World Karaoke Tour.
Do you like visiting art museums in other cities when you travel?
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H-Bomb's Worldwide Karaoke 
Love this museum. Frankly, it blows the pants off the Guggenheim Museum, if only b/c there is so much more to see (and the neighborhood is changing in exciting ways as well!). I’m only just now discovering your blog, but this is a great post!
-Scott
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