Museum may plan to go to Rio

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has been pulling back -- reducing its hours, trimming its staff, postponing exhibitions, closing its SoHo branch, shutting one of its two Las Vegas satellites, ditching a proposal for a Frank Gehry-designed building in lower Manhattan and scrapping a plan for a contemporary art space in Venice, Italy. But despite all the belt-tightening, the museum may be expanding in South America.

The Art Newspaper reports that Guggenheim director Thomas Krens has negotiated a deal with the city of Rio de Janeiro to construct a $150-million underwater Guggenheim museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. The proposed museum will be partly submerged in a city port, where it will be the centerpiece of a revitalization effort. News of the move is sure to raise questions, but launching the Guggenheim Rio may turn out to be fiscally prudent. The newspaper reports that Rio de Janeiro will pay $25 million for the right to use the Guggenheim name for 50 years, to borrow works from its collections and to present traveling exhibitions circulated by the museum.

Guggenheim officials said negotiations are ongoing but no agreement has been reached.