Ex-Director of MAM Rio Fined for Saying Museum Lacked Fire Insurance
12June 16, 2026
Fábio Szwarcwald, who served as executive director of theMuseu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro(MAM Rio) from 2020 to 2022, has been ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 reais (about $20,000) for breach of contract, theArt Newspaperreports. The breach came in 2022 when Szwarcwald said publicly that the museum had been without fire insurance from 2006 to 2022. He resigned shortly thereafter.
The Rio de Janeiro court of appeal ruled that, even if the allegations made by Szwarcwald were true, he violated a confidentiality clause in his contract and damaged the museum’s reputation in the eyes of donors, artists, and the public. The museum—which is home to some 16,000 works, including those by Tarsilo do Amara, Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Giacometti, Hélio Oiticica—was severely damaged in a 1978 blaze, in which some six hundred works were destroyed. The court additionally ordered MAM Rio to pay Szwarcwald outstanding compensation he is owed between May 2021 and January 2022.
While in the role of executive director at MAM Rio, Szwarcwald pushed vigorously for structural improvements and those related to fire safety, including the purchase of fire insurance. As operating costs surged during the first year of his tenure, from roughly $2.8 million to about $4.3 million, the institution’s board balked, eventually appointing and administrative director to oversee the museum’s finances.
Szwarcwald has said he will appeal, on the grounds that his statements regarding the institution’s lack of fire insurance coverage at the time, which MAM Rio has confirmed, did not violate his contractual obligations, and that the museum’s insurance status does not constitute a trade or industrial secret regarding the safekeeping of its collection.