The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (Portuguese for "pinacotheca of the state of São Paulo") is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, designed by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts. It is the oldest art museum in São Paulo, founded on December 24, 1905, and established as a state museum since 1911.
After passing through a renovation conducted by Paulo Mendes da Rocha in the 1990s, the museum became one of the most dynamic cultural institutions of the country, lining up with the international circuit of exhibitions, hosting cultural events and keeping an active bibliographic production. Pinacoteca also maintains a branch in Bom Retiro district, called Estação Pinacoteca, where it holds temporary exhibitions and the institution's documentation center.
The Pinacoteca has a wide-ranging collection of Brazilian art, mainly noted for its vast assemblage of 19th century paintings and sculptures, one of the largest in the country, as well as for a number of iconic Brazilian Modernist artworks. The collection also includes a department of works on paper, European paintings and sculptures from 19th-century artists, decorative arts, etc.
