The Government fails to adjust to the combat it promoted by regulation in opposition to Franco’s looting of artwork | Culture | EUROtoday

Thousands of artworks had been separated from their house owners in the course of the Civil War and the dictatorship. With the passage of time, and the regime, they by no means returned. They ended up in ministries, museums, personal properties, universities or who is aware of the place. Track of them was misplaced, together with the hope of recovering them. Until the Democratic Memory Law, in October 2022, promised to convey them again residence. To this finish, he expanded the standing of sufferer of Francoism to those that “suffered economic repression with seizures and total or partial loss of property.” […]”; recognized “the fitting to compensation”; guaranteed that the State “will promote the mandatory initiatives for the investigation of the seizures”, including an audit and an inventory; and committed to implementing “attainable technique of recognition for these affected.” The text set, as a limit, one year. The Government was in a hurry to finally deliver answers, justice and, hopefully, works. However, the deadline expired in October 2023. There has even been time to reach the year in which 90 of the outbreak of war. The victims, meanwhile, continue waiting.

“Undoubtedly, the law has not been complied with,” says Professor Arturo Colorado, one of the main experts in this field, author in 2023 of a report commissioned by the Prado Museum to investigate its collection. “A regulation has been approved with very laudable intentions, but it has not been followed by the necessary instruments,” adds Laura Sánchez Gaona, a lawyer who in recent months has achieved several restitutions of pieces to the heirs of Pedro Rico, exiled Republican mayor of Madrid. However, he attributes the recoveries above all to the political will of the Gran Canaria Council, first, and the Ministry of Culture, later. Because “the development regulations” that the Democratic Memory Law promised still do not exist, as well as a single and clear legal protocol for the restitution of works, or a complete inventory that puts a magnifying glass on the origin of the assets of the entire Administration.

“Although it could be as much as the Government to expedite, make clear and set up particular channels, in the mean time it’s essential to benefit from earlier laws, akin to a 2008 Royal Decree on seized paperwork, to acquire some restitution,” clarifies Sánchez Gaona. “There has been a partial investigation by Culture. In the remainder of the ministries there is no such thing as a recognized exercise on this regard,” Colorado completes.

In May 2024, the department headed by Ernest Urtasun presented the results of its search in the 16 state-owned museums: it found 5,126 pieces (paintings, jewelry, ceramics, sculptures) coming mainly from seizures made by the Republic during the Civil War to protect artistic assets, which the dictatorship never returned after the conflict. Since then, the total has grown to more than 7,000 assets. Y Cultura has also promoted the return of a portrait of Francisco Giner de los Ríos to its foundation, as well as several works to the town of Brihuega, in Guadalajara, last week. There is little left, as confirmed by sources involved, for two towns in the same province, Yebes and Pareja, to recover two pieces, deposited until now in the Prado. But what about the rest of the Administration?

EL PAÍS has sent requests over the last year and a half to the 22 ministries, through the Transparency Portal, to find out if they keep works from seizures during the war and successive looting under Franco. Defense thus revealed that it exhibited at least 11 paintings with that origin in its facilities. Industry and Tourism responded: “In addition to 2 works by the De la Sota household that, thought-about seized and after finishing up the suitable checks, had been returned to it, Turespaña is analyzing the requests for particular instances of return obtained. In addition, in a gathering with Culture, we had been knowledgeable of the existence of documentation on a collection of work that would have originated from seizures. The investigation work continues, subsequently, however given the quantity and dispersion of the works, in addition to the dearth of specialised personnel in Turespaña, are taking a very long time.” Transportation defined that “in most cases there is no documentary evidence of the origin of said goods.” The Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts prolonged the deadline for responding by one month, till January 5, though it finally didn’t accomplish that.

The remainder of the ministries affirm of their responses that they haven’t any proof of works with this origin amongst their possessions. None mentions, nonetheless, that they’ve carried out a selected stock or audit lately, as established by the Democratic Memory Law. After asking all of the press workplaces about it final Monday, solely three shared extra info. “The response is based on an existing inventory, which allows us to reliably know the origin of the cultural assets housed by the ministry,” the Interior warns. They level out one thing comparable in Education: “It was based on a review of the available catalogues, carried out internally.” “We are not aware of the acquisition or possession of works of art from before the creation of the Women’s Institute (1983) and the ministry (2008),” they report from Igualdad.

Arturo Colorado claims to have documentary proof of greater than 400 seized works that the ministries of Finance, Justice, Interior, Defense, Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and Education obtained on the time. He says that he has even positioned a couple of items, additionally due to the investigations he carried out years in the past within the Treasury and Justice. He himself clarifies that maybe some are nonetheless there and others should not, however, a minimum of, he asks that they actually search for them. And that the opacity and resistance that has generally been encountered even from public powers disappear.

“If you make a law saying that you are going to address it in a year, face it. We are talking about an authentic diaspora, the greatest artistic looting in the history of Spain. Without having all the information it is impossible to reconstruct it. It can only be resolved if the Administration assumes its global dimension and carries out a complete investigation with a team for this It would not be so expensive either, in a year and a half a good part of the works could be located. If at least each ministry assumed its own scope, it would be a fundamental step,” displays Colorado. And Sánchez Gaona urges the Government to publicly report progress and items discovered, by means of a platform on-line just like the catalog that Cultura launched.

“The law was a toast to the sun, they were not aware when they set those dates,” says Santos M. Mateos, professor on the Central University of Catalonia, creator of the research. Let them be delivered to their rightful proprietor. Restitution of artworks deposited by the SDPAN within the National Art Museum of Catalonia. The knowledgeable, who has investigated along with Colorado, highlights the “very important” complexity of the investigations, which in keeping with him explains a minimum of partly the Government’s delays. He cites items that he himself was in a position to hint to the city of Daroca (Zaragoza) or the Almudaina Palace, in Mallorca, however he was unable to seek out, as a result of that they had in all probability gone to a different place. “I am reluctant to give numbers, but we are surely talking about thousands. What is clear is that when the war ends there is a brutal movement of works. We are not aware of its magnitude. It affects practically everything that was in churches, public buildings or museums,” provides Mateos.

A tide of artwork. And, for now, only a trickle of resolved instances. Meanwhile, time is misplaced that the claimants do not need: so many a long time have handed that the grandchildren of the victims are already grandparents. “It is unsustainable,” laments Sánchez Gaona. The Government’s ideology will increase the frustration of these affected: it occurs underneath the Executive most crucial of the dictatorship. A paradox. Like a regulation for reminiscence that suffers oblivion.