Inaugurated in October of 1947 for Assis Chateaubriand, the Museum of Art of São Paulo, the MASP, is fruit of an adventure of two people with revolutionary vision for its time, and supported for a group of friends.

Founder and proprietor of Daily and the Emitting Associates, together with Pietro professor Bardi Maria, journalist and critic of art in Italy just fond of Brazil, Chateubriand created the collection most important of the south hemisphere. The happy meeting between Chateaubriand and Pietro Bardi Maria lined up Brazil with the countries of first world in the universe of the arts.

The project that came being cultivated has some deep decades got much inaugurated success after collecting the necessary ones to the acquisition of works of art to form the quantity of the museum.

Lina Bo, Italian modernista architect and wife of Bardi professor, arquitetonicamente conceived the current building of the MASP. The land of the São Paulo Avenue had been donated to the municipality with the condition of that the sight for the center of the city as well as the one of the mountain range of the Cantareira was preserved, through the valley of avenue 9 of July. Thus, the architect idealized a edificio supported for four pillars allowing, thus, to that they pass for the avenue can disclose the center of the city. In civil construction he is only in the world for its peculiariedade: the put main body on four lateral pillars with goes exempts of 74 meters.

The MASP keeps Pinacoteca, Library, Fototeca, Filmoteca, Videoteca, Courses of Arts and educative service of support to the expositions, exhibition of films and musical concerts of artistic and cultural interest. In this way, it is placed as first cultural center of excellency in our country.

The visitor can appreciate in the building of the São Paulo Avenue, workmanships of the Italian school as Rafael, Andrea Mantegna, Botticceli and Bellini; of flamengos painters as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Cranach or Memling. Between the Spaniard they are Velazquéz and Goya.

Most of the nucleus of européia art of the MASP is of French painting. We can appreciate the four pictures of the children of Luiz XV, painted for Nattier, or the alegorias of the four stations of Delacroix. Of the impressionista movement, we find some workmanships of Renoir, Manet, Monet, Cézanne and Degas. Of the ones after-impressionistas it is possible to appreciate some pictures of Van Gogh or Toulouse-Lautrec.

One of the prominences of the quantity, is the dedicated space to the complete collection of sculptures of Edgar Degas. A bronze collection, made in drawing of 73 parts, only can be seen integrally in the Masp and few museums as in the Metropolitan in New York, or the D`Orsay Museum in Paris.

The museum was created to be dynamic, with a profile of cultural center. Therefore it possesss spaces differentiated for accomplishment of temporary expositions. The visitor always finds a newness in its visit to the place, for more frequent than either. The temporary expositions present the most varied subjects or supports. National and international expositions of art contemporary, photograph, design and architecture if revezam during the year, bringing to the public a universe of images.