Villa Ortiz Basualdo, Art museum in Mar del Plata, Argentina

The Museo Municipal de Arte Juan Carlos Castagnino is a municipal art museum in Mar del Plata, Argentina, housed in an early 20th-century villa with turrets, towers, and an ornate facade. The interior was designed by Belgian craftsmen and features decorated rooms that display both fine art and decorative objects.

The Ortiz Basualdo family of Buenos Aires commissioned the villa in 1909 as a summer residence on Stella Maris Hill, designed by Luis Dubois and Pablo Pater. The city's first municipal fine arts museum opened in 1938 in the City Hall. The family donated the villa to the city, and the museum was re-inaugurated there on July 9, 1980; it was renamed for Juan Carlos Castagnino in 1982.

The museum is named after Juan Carlos Castagnino, an Argentine painter born in Mar del Plata whose work forms a central part of the collection. The rooms of the villa mix decorative arts with painting in a way that visitors can still see clearly today.

The museum sits on Avenida Colon, one of the main roads in Mar del Plata, making it easy to reach on foot or by local transport. Visiting on a weekday or in the morning generally means fewer people in the rooms, which helps when looking at the architectural details up close.

The villa's furniture, acquired in 1909 and during the 1918 remodel, was made by Belgian architect and cabinetmaker Gustave Serrurier-Bovy; the donation is considered one of the finest collections of its type worldwide. The museum also holds 138 works by Juan Carlos Castagnino, after whom it was renamed in 1982.