Pricy Prado annex completed

Madrid’s Prado museum has unveiled a modernist new annex of red brick, granite, oak and marble, giving a first look at sorely needed exhibition space for one of Spain’s main tourist attractions.

Designed by architect Rafael Moneo, the new space offers visitors plenty of natural light and blends in discreetly with the original gallery built in the early 19th century. Among special features are 15,070 square feet of temporary exhibition space, print and drawings rooms that will allow the gallery to display 1,000 Goya prints that are currently in storage.

The annex will not be open to the public until fall, but Moneo gave journalists a guided tour of the complex over the weekend before Culture Minister Carmen Calvo formally declared construction work finished.

Extension work began in 2001 with a budget of $56.7 million and was scheduled to be finished in 23 months. The building, however, took more than five years and $202 million to complete.