All posts tagged: Guernica

Reina Sofía Faces Audit and Political Pressure Over Missing Artworks

Reina Sofía Faces Audit and Political Pressure Over Missing Artworks

Published by Jenni Sidey

Spain’s government is turning up the pressure on the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía over longstanding problems tied to its collection inventory, with lawmakers threatening consequences that could ultimately cost museum director Manuel Segade his job. A parliamentary oversight committee in Spain recently passed a resolution demanding that the museum complete a full and updated inventory of its holdings by December 31, 2026, according to Le Journal des Arts. The measure, backed by Spain’s conservative Popular Party and supported by the far-right, passed by a vote of 20 to 13, while the ruling Socialist Party abstained. Related Articles In notably blunt language, lawmakers said that if the museum fails to comply by the deadline, Spain’s Ministry of Culture should remove Segade as director. The text also calls for a “total and absolute” audit of the museum’s holdings, including works on loan, deposited artworks, and pieces whose whereabouts remain unclear. “The artworks held in the museum—as well as those belonging to it that cannot be duly located—can no longer be allowed to remain at risk,” representatives of the Popular …

Spain Culture Minister Rejects Basque Request to Loan Picasso’s Guernica

Spain Culture Minister Rejects Basque Request to Loan Picasso’s Guernica

Published by José Betancourt

When the Basque regional government made a formal request last week to Spain‘s Ministry of Culture to authorize a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso‘s Guernica (1937), the region’s head of government, Lehendakari Imanol Pradales, said he expected more robust discussion on the issue after Easter Sunday. According to El País, that discussion came on Tuesday—and the culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, was unequivocal. During a government oversight session in Spain’s Senate, Urtasun told senator Igotz López, of the Basque National Party, that he would not approve the transfer request. Related Articles “I understand the sensitivity behind this request,” Urtasun said. “We are talking about a work linked to the memory of Gernika and the pain it symbolizes. My obligation is to guarantee access to culture and also to safeguard our heritage. In matters like this, we must listen to the experts who have been preserving the work for 30 years. Their reports are clear and advise against moving the piece due to the risks involved. Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Gernika should also mean ensuring that …

Non-European Artists Are Sorely Under-Represented in Paris Galleries

Non-European Artists Are Sorely Under-Represented in Paris Galleries

Published by José Betancourt

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines REALITY CHECK. Timed with the opening of Art Paris this week, a new study on the diversity of Parisian galleries has revealed some striking findings, reports The Art Newspaper France. Led by curator and author Louise Thurin alongside César Lévy, founder of 193 Gallery, the study surveyed 108 established galleries across the French capital. The results show notable progress in the representation of women artists, who now make up 34.8 percent of gallery rosters—nearly triple the figure from a decade ago. However, artists born outside Europe remain significantly underrepresented, regardless of where they are currently based. According to the survey, only 4.7 percent of artists were born in Africa, 5.3 percent in Asia, 3.6 percent in Central or South America, and just 0.5 percent in Oceania. By contrast, European artists account for 67 percent of rosters, with North American artists making up 19 percent. Younger artists are also in short supply: those under the age of 40 represent just 15.3 percent of gallery …

Politicians Trade Barbs Over ‘Guernica’ Loan Request

Politicians Trade Barbs Over ‘Guernica’ Loan Request

Published by José Betancourt

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLÉDOS. Spanish leaders are trading insults in a heated, increasingly political clash over the Basque regional government’s recent request to borrow Pablo Picasso’s Guernica for an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, reports El Pais. “It makes no sense for everything to be returned to its origin,” said the president of the Madrid governing body, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “It represents a provincial mindset when culture is universal.” To this, Basque Nationalist Party leader Aitor Esteban accused Ayuso of being the “provincial” one for viewing “having a beer on a terrace as a national statement.” Two weeks ago, Basque regional president Imanol Pradales formally requested that the painting be loaned to the Bilbao museum to mark the city’s 90th anniversary, but Picasso’s black-and-white masterpiece has not left Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía since 1992, and the museum has repeatedly taken steps to keep it that way. Today, Spain’s culture minister is expected to make a public announcement about the transfer request. IN MEMORIAM. Thomas Zipp, the …

Politicians Trade Barbs Over ‘Guernica’ Loan Request

Picasso’s Guernica Could Leave Madrid for First Time in Over 30 Years

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Basque regional government has formally asked Spain’s Ministry of Culture to authorize a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso‘s Guernica to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, according to Ara, a Catalan-language newspaper. If the move is approved, it would mark the first time the painting has traveled since it was installed at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía in 1992. The proposed transfer would take place between October 2026 and June 2027, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, the Basque city whose destruction by Nazi and Italian Fascist air forces on April 26, 1937, inspired Picasso to paint the antiwar canvas. Related Articles Imanol Pradales, the lehendakari, or head of government, for Basque Country in northern Spain, said the proposed loan would be “a formula for symbolic reparation and historical memory” for the Basque people, as well as a “message to the world” about “what war entails and the atrocity that derives from dictatorship,” per Ara. It’s far from the first transfer request from the Basque government for Guernica. The government has done so …