Future of one of Mexico’s most important collections uncertain as parent company put up for sale

La Colección Banamex, which numbers more than 6,000 works including pieces by Frida Kahlo and Clemente Orozco, belongs to a bank that Citigroup is offloading

The future of one of Mexico’s best-known art collections, La Colección Banamex, is uncertain after the bank to which it belongs has been put up for sale.

The US-based Citigroup—which bought Mexican high street stalwart Banamex and its vast array of cultural assets 20 years ago—announced this month that it was offloading CitiBanamex after a two-decade venture into the volatile Mexican retail banking market.

The Art Newspaper understands that the sale of the collection separately from the bank and its assets is not currently under consideration, but the announcement nonetheless prompted a wave of concern over the collection, which is heavily weighted to ensure Mexican artists and themes are represented and which now numbers more than 6,000 items including works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Clemente Orozco and several other artists whose work is deemed patrimonio nacional (national patrimony) so cannot leave the country without permission.