By: Octavio Borges Perez
The National Museum of Fine Arts was awarded with the Certificate of Excellence 2014 annually granted by TripAdvisor for Bussines, the biggest Web in the world that allows travelers to plan and enjoy a customized tour.
This award is the recognition of the quality of service provided by the institution and it is conferred taking into account the views and comments expressed consistently by TripAdvisor’s travelers about different destinations and tourist attractions.
Like the views of millions of users show in the Web, "Havana is an outstanding destination whose attraction grows more and more."
This year in Cuba were also awarded the Habaguanex Terral Hotel, Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin, the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria and Iberostar Grand Hotel in Trinidad.
Important museums and sights in the world have also deserved this award, like the Alhambra in Granada, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, D'Orsay Museum, the Museum of Prado and the Louvre Museum.
The National Fine Arts Museum treasures one of the largest collections of paintings and sculpture from Latin America and is the largest of the Caribbean islands, inaugurated on April 28th, 1913.
Its artistic heritage gathers more than 45 thousand pieces, it has the largest collection of Cuban art in the world, and it contains works by major European schools also important representations of ancient art, including those from Greece, Rome and Egypt.
The major restructuring made on the institution in recent history occurred in 1996, when in order to expand the exhibition space, the Presidency of the Council of State decides to grant the institution the use of two new buildings.
Thus the Palace of Fine Arts was for the exclusive exhibition of national art, international collections were transferred to the Palace of the former Asturian Center and was integrated a third building, Barracks Militias, which is also dedicated to administrative and logistic activities.
The design and implementation of the changes were made by the museographer Jorge Candelaria and Jose Linares. This change allowed the museum to expand in a 50 percent the number of permanent exhibits, to exhibit for the first time, the collections of American art and Asian art. The restoration lasted five years and had a cost of $ 14.5 million. The inauguration of the new spaces of the museum took place on July 18th, 2001.
Source: AIN
