[4] In addition to Rodin, some notable European artists whose work is displayed include Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, the circle of Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Joan Miró, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, El Greco, Camille Claudel, and Tintoretto.

[6] The most valuable work of art in the collection is believed to be a version of Madonna of the Yarnwinder by a member of the circle of Leonardo da Vinci.

[6] The original building of the Museo Soumaya, opened in 1994, is in the Plaza Loreto of San Ángel in the southern part of Mexico City.

The new building in Plaza Carso in the Nuevo Polanco district was designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, son-in-law of Lebanese-Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, and opened in 2011.

Built near the Magdalena river the museum's first building is on what was part of the encomienda of the conquistador Hernán Cortés in the 15th century.

This led to the Grupo Carso undertaking an urban conversion of the ruins to turn it into what is now the site of the museum - officially founded in 1994.

[9] In 2014, on the occasion of its 19th anniversary, it hosted the exhibition European Landscapes, showing 50 works by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, Klaes Molenaer and Joost Carhelisz.

[6] The weight of the building is held by an exoskeleton of 28 vertical curved steel columns and seven beams encircling the structure built by a Slim-owned company that manufactures offshore oil rigs.

Notable guests that participated in the ribbon cutting included Felipe Calderón, Gabriel García Márquez, Evelyn Robert de Rothschild, and Larry King.

Admission to the museum is now free of charge and the operating costs are covered by Slim's fortune, which was the world's largest at the time the new location opened.

Some commentators, including Larry King, have predicted that the museum will cause an increase in the number of tourists from the United States who visit Mexico City.

The Columbia Journal noted it appeared as a "sequined anvil" with the hexagonal aluminum scales, critiquing the interior as having the feel of "somewhere between a fancy Chelsea gallery and a luxury mall" that provided a "claustrophobic feel" (noting that plans for light by Romero were blocked by Slim for financial reasons), and that "Discord between the art and the layout of the rooms contributes to the sense of chaos.

"[16] The Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Christopher Knight noted the exterior "does add a striking profile to a redeveloping section of the city’s upscale Polanco neighborhood" but that "the small shock is just how weak the museum’s collection is, and how poorly the paintings, sculptures and decorative arts have been installed in the open floor plan galleries.

[18] In a 2014 tour of Mexico City architecture, The New York Times summarized the museum as "one of those buildings that, love or hate it, you can’t stop looking at.

"[19] The Lonely Planet guide notes the collection "contains worthy Rivera and Siqueiros murals and paintings by French impressionists, but there's too much filler.