The Moreira Salles family: Brazil's patrons of the arts

At a meeting held in late 2011 at the Moreira Salles family farm in Matão, in the interior of São Paulo state, brothers Fernando, Pedro, Walter Jr., and João Moreira Salles formed a jury composed of French and American experts to discuss the family’s newest and most ambitious cultural undertaking: the construction of a museum in São Paulo. For several days, five projects from major architectural firms in the country were exhaustively evaluated. Andrade Morettin Arquitetos won. The museum will also be the new headquarters of the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS). When completed, it will reinforce the family’s reputation as the greatest patrons of the arts in Brazil today. If you didn’t know this, don’t blame yourself. The father’s Minas Gerais roots, as well as his pleasure in supporting cultural projects, are reflected in the heirs’ behavior wherever they work. They do everything – and it’s no small feat – away from the spotlight.

In summary of the cultural legacy being built, in addition to the three units of the Moreira Salles Institute, which host exhibitions throughout the year, the heirs of Walther Moreira Salles manage a photography collection of over 850,000 images, as well as 80,000 phonograms. They publish the essay magazine Serrote , the magazine piauí , and the contemporary photography magazine Zum , in addition to funding Rádio Batuta, which serves to broadcast the institute’s musical collection. They have also been important donors to museums in the country. For the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), the family donated paintings by renowned artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Raphael, Picasso, and Van Gogh. “The fundamental thing is that they have a cultural work in Brazil that is not carried out by the Brazilian elite. Everything they do is excellent. Let’s create a literary journalism magazine? It’s the best there is. An essay magazine? Same thing. What they do at the institute, nobody else does in Brazil. Only Bernardo Paz, from Inhotim, and them. The Moreira Salles family has a patronage system. They are the big names in culture,” says journalist Antonia Pellegrino, a friend of João and Waltinho and well-connected in Rio de Janeiro society, highlighting the importance of the family’s work, one of the richest in the country, within an elite where nothing is given without credit.