Museu Picasso

The Museu Picasso ("Picasso Museum") houses one of the most extensive collections of artworks by the 20th-century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. With 4,251 works exhibited by the painter, the museum has one of the most complete permanent collections of works. The museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces in Barcelona's La Ribera neighborhood, in the Old City, and more specifically, it is located on Montcada Street, a formerly very prestigious street home to wealthy merchants and nobility from the Gothic to the Baroque periods. It opened to the public on 9 March 1963, becoming the first museum dedicated to Picasso's work and the only one created during the artist's lifetime. It has since been declared a museum of national interest by the Government of Catalonia. Highlights of the collection include two of his first major works, The First Communion (1896), and Science and Charity (1897). In particular, the Museu Picasso reveals Picasso's relationship with the city of Barcelona, a relationship that was shaped in his youth and adolescence and continued until his death.