Eduardo Costantini founded MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires) in 2001 to collect, preserve, study and promote Latin American art from the early 20th century to the present.
MALBA, the world’s largest museum dedicated to Latin American Art, welcomes over a million visitors each year. It is a renowned venue in Buenos Aires and Latin America’s contemporary art scene and has over 600 modern and contemporary artworks on show, including pieces by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Remedios Varo, Tarsila do Amaral, Wifredo Lam, Xul Solar, Joaquín Torres-García, Emilio Pettorutti, Cándido Portinari and Antonio Berni.
Costantini, a prolific art collector, enabled the launch of the museum when he donated 220 Latin American artworks from his private collection. The Eduardo F. Costantini Foundation, which he founded in 1995 to champion cultural and educational activities in Buenos Aires, supports the museum financially.
He is an acclaimed real estate developer with a background in finance and stockbroking. In 1991, he founded Consultatio S.A., a real estate firm with projects in both Argentina and the US. The firm is famed for the Oceana Bal Harbour development in Florida, a luxury development which features two original works by Jeff Koons in its outdoor breezeway.
Costantini is a committed supporter of the arts. He began buying art when in his 20s and remains dedicated to collecting Latin American art, with a focus on supporting young emerging artists.
He is a member of the international advisory board of the São Paulo Art Biennial Foundation, and former chairman council at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, a member of the advisory committee of the David Rockefeller Center of Latin American Studies at Harvard University and founder member of the global philanthropist circle, Synergos Institute, in New York.