Guggenheim eyes Brazil for its first Latin American museum

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Guggenheim Foundation officials arrived in Rio de Janeiro this week to review possible sites for their first Latin American affiliate -- a museum that Brazil hopes would become a must-see on the international art circuit.

The foundation's director, Thomas Krens, told reporters on Friday that the team of 10, including renowned architect Frank Gehry, will visit four Brazilian cities.

Local organizers said the tourist mecca of Rio has already been singled out.

"The cultural center of Latin America will shift to Rio with this museum," said Edemar Cid Ferreira, president of the Brazil-U.S. Council, which will raise funds for the project.

"The major cultural route has always included Paris, London, New York and Tokyo. Now it will go south of the equator for the first time and include Rio," he told Reuters.

Rio's status as the top tourist destination in Latin America's biggest country makes it a favorite for the Guggenheim's first regional museum, Krens said. But he said the process was only beginning.

In a bid to revitalize Rio's seedy downtown, a museum would likely be built on a waterfront plaza now home to dilapidated shipping warehouses, a bus transfer station and prostitutes, Ferreira said.

During a news conference on Friday, Gehry said no site has been chosen but that he would recommend "getting into the gritty" of the city. The artist's glass and steel Guggenheim creation in Spain's Bilbao revitalized that city.

The Guggenheim team is set to travel to Curitiba, a model of modern urban planning in Brazil's south, and Recife and Salvador, two colonial cities in Brazil's impoverished northeast.

They said the "courting" was expected to last about six months, to be followed by a final decision.

Ferreira said he is talking with foreign companies who operate in Brazil to foot the $300 million to $500 million bill.

The foundation became increasingly interested in expanding to Latin America as it prepared the exhibit "Brazil Body and Soul," which will be on display this fall.

"The cultural story here is unbelievably rich," Krens said. "It is time to have a cultural trade that runs north and south, not just east and west."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See related sites about STYLE

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.