Even if you are not the biggest art fanatic or museums simply bore you, you might want to make an exception when it comes to São Paulo.

First of all, the construction of this museum is seriously awesome. Designed by architect Lina Bo Bardi, this building is considered a symbol of modern Brazilian architecture. It is suspended in the air, held up by two lateral beams, and boy does it look cool.

The collection inside is just as impressive as the structure that houses it. The museum is internationally recognized for its collection of European art, often regarded as the finest in the Southern Hemisphere. In an attempt to get sufficient funding from donors to acquire such a vast collection, the museum resorted to some pretty bold methods of persuasion. They held banquets and even public parades through the city every time someone coughed up a substantial sum or renowned piece of art. Very Brazilian of them, no?

On a less celebratory note, in recent years there have been two attempted robberies here. The first one happened in October 2007 when two men overpowered some security guards in an attempt to steal paintings from the second floor. I guess the thieves got cold feet, because they promptly ditched the caper and ran away. Sadly, the museum was not as lucky when it came to the second theft. In the early hours of December 20, 2007, three men invaded the museum and took two paintings. The men grabbed two of the most valuable paintings, one of which was the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch by megastar artist Pablo Picasso. These two paintings alone have been estimated at about $70 million. Luckily, the paintings were recovered and since then the party museum, as we like to think of it,  has promised to beef up security.