Abstract
The Museum of Hispanic American Art “Isaac Fernández Blanco”, which was created in the 19th century as a private museum of Argentine history and of American and European handcrafts, developed in the most prestigious institution dedicated to colonial art.
The identity of the museum demanded a sum of political, intellectual and administrative actions for years. The most significant ones were its transfer, in 1943, to its local site in Suipacha 1422, and its later merge with the Colonial Museum. In the 60´s a new event contributed towards its new identity: Prof. Héctor Schenone, main referent of Colonial Art History in Argentina, was appointed director of the museum.
This article aims to show the ideological motives that enabled these changes within the insitutution, as well as to analyze the most relevant issues of Prof. Schenone´s performance who, as an academic professor, decided to reformulate and bring new meanings to the museum heritage, from the multiple points of view he owned as public official, art historian and specialized collector.