The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (in Portuguese Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, also known by the acronym MAM) is one of the most important cultural institutions in Brazil. It is located in the Glória neighborhood "Glória (Rio de Janeiro)") of Rio de Janeiro, in the Parque do Flamengo, near the Santos Dumont airport. Its headquarters is the best-known work of the Rio architect Affonso Eduardo Reidy, with an orientation towards architectural rationalism, especially due to the use of cast iron structures and their integration with the environment. The structural concept was designed by Carmen Portinho, who also directed the work.[1]​.

Created as a private non-profit organization, the museum was inaugurated in 1948 at the initiative of a group of businessmen, chaired by Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya. It is the fruit of the economic and cultural context that Brazil experienced after the end of the Second World War, in which the diversification of cultural facilities in this country and the acquisition of a valuable artistic heritage was observed.

Scene of several events of great relevance in the Brazilian artistic avant-garde, the museum has housed throughout its history a very representative collection of modern art, although most of it was lost in the tragic fire of 1978. Today, the MAM preserves around 11 thousand objects, most of them from the Gilberto Chateaubriand collection, granted on loan to the museum since 1993.

On July 8, 1978, the museum was devoured by flames, destroying 150 works and leaving another nine hundred affected by the disaster. Among the razed works were recognized artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and part of the collection that was borrowed from the Museum of Fine Arts of Uruguay where works by Joaquín Torres García were found.

Among the lost works are Portrait of Dora Maar and Head of a Woman by Pablo Picasso, Crying Woman by Cándido Portinari, Egg on a Plate Without a Plate by Salvador Dalí and Character in a Landscape by Joan Miró.

• - Official website of the museum Archived December 1, 2017 at the Wayback Machine.