Dolores Olmedo Museum

The House Museum of
a One-Woman Powerhouse

The former Hacienda La Noria today hosts the Dolores Olmedo Museum.

Purchased in 1962 by Olmedo, it became her headquarters and remained her home until 1994. A prominent business woman, philanthropist and art collector, her collection included some 150 paintings which she’d purchased from Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The museum collection also includes impressive works of colonial, folk, and other modern and contemporary art including sculptures, prints, and photography.

Upon the advice of Rivera, Omedo also purchased multiple works of pre-Columbian art, a collection totaling an astonishing 6,000 works.

The gardens remain attended by peacocks, geese, ducks, turkeys and the xoloitzcuintle dogs Olmedo loved. Permanent exhibition spaces are dedicated to Olmedo’s belongings, and to works by Russian-born Mexican artist, Angelina Beloff, who was Diego Rivera’s first wife. Temporary exhibitions include the works of foremost artists from around the world.

The Dolores Olmedo Museum is loved first and foremost for the fantastically inviting gardens and grounds that invite visitors to take part in the opulent lifestyle of the self-made industrialist. That she dedicated so much of her fortune to the arts, and to the future, is but further testimony to the Mexican frame of mind she very well represented.

A trip to the museum also complements a later afternoon spent on the canals of Xochimilco which are easily accessible from the museum.