Hilda Trujillo Soto, former director of the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera museums in Mexico City, has publicly accused the trust overseeing these institutions of years of mismanagement. In a blog post published in early April, Soto alleged that trustees failed to address discrepancies in records, with Kahlo and Rivera works possibly missing and later appearing in private U.S. collections. She also claimed that materials from Kahlo’s personal diary and artworks catalogued in 1957, including *Frida in Flames* and *The Abortion*, have been misplaced or illegally sold. The trust, established by Rivera in 1955 and now administered by Mexico’s central bank Banxico, denied Soto’s claims, stating she never officially reported concerns during her tenure from 2009 to 2020.
These allegations matter because the museums’ collections are protected under Mexican national heritage law and are central to understanding the country’s cultural identity. If Soto’s claims are true, they represent a serious breach of trust and legal standards, potentially involving the illegal sale of national treasures. The trust is currently preparing a major traveling Kahlo exhibition with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Tate Modern, and the controversy could cast a shadow over that project and raise broader questions about the stewardship of Mexico’s artistic legacy.