Five former Catalan councilors stress the choose of the ‘Sijena case’ with a criticism | Culture | EUROtoday

The judicial battle over Sijena’s Romanesque work has surpassed a brand new display this Tuesday in that lengthy decade that it has collected within the courts. Five former Ministers of Culture of the Generalitat have determined to file a prison criticism in opposition to the choose in command of ordering the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC) to return the twelfth century murals to the Sijena Monastery, implementing a ruling from the Supreme Court final May. The lawsuit, which additionally falls on these in command of requesting the execution of the ruling within the Government of Aragon and the Villanueva de Sijena City Council, seeks to “avoid the destruction of irreplaceable universal works”, which might imply violating article 321 of the Penal Code: the alteration or destruction of “buildings uniquely protected for their historical, artistic, cultural or monumental interest.” But the transfer, with an extended shadow of Junts, is above all a measure of stress with the massive query of its journey within the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon.

The criticism means shifting ahead with the info, because the work proceed to be exhibited on the MNAC ready for Rocío Pilar Vargas, head of the Investigative Court quantity 2 of Huesca, to resolve what are the following steps to take after the Supreme Court’s ruling. For now, the choose suggested the creation of a fee of consultants to resolve how the restitution of the 134 sq. meters of work, categorized as Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC), needs to be carried out. But those that signal the criticism, former councilors Lluís Puig (who was head of Culture in 2017), Joan Manuel Tresserras (2006-10), Ferran Mascarell (2010-16), Laura Borràs (2018-19) and Àngels Ponsa (2021-21), underneath the authorized route of Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, spotlight the existence of a number of research by consultants that warn that any manipulation will endanger the work. The MNAC, not concerned within the criticism, has acknowledged that it isn’t technically ready to return the work with out damaging them.

“The execution of this civil sentence cannot be carried out if such an act implies the consummation of a crime, as is the case in our case,” reads the criticism that have to be resolved by the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon and which, in accordance with Alonso-Cuevillas, seeks to activate preventive measures comparable to people who annulled the decision for the 2017 independence referendum, article 13 of the Criminal Procedure Law. Among the crimes that seem within the criticism is that of prevarication (because of “manifest contempt for the certain and fatal result” of the restitution), which impacts solely the choose, and that of destruction of cultural heritage. The criticism defends that the suitable of property, which obliges the Monastery of Sijena to restitute, is beneath the overall curiosity of defending heritage.

Before the counselors After the criticism was offered in Barcelona, ​​which had been within the making for weeks, the General Director of Culture of the Government of Aragon, Pedro Olloqui, has appeared earlier than journalists in Zaragoza to denounce what he considers an “intimidating and unacceptable” motion that has been linked to the Catalan independence course of. In truth, Olloqui has taken as a right a steady line between the actions of the present Catalan Government, chaired by the socialist Salvador Illa, with that of the secessionist executives who preceded him. Thus, he identified that the present head of Culture, Sònia Hernàndez, was director of Cultural Heritage through the ERC Government: “there is continuity.” “The independence movement wants to grow at the expense of the rights of the Aragonese,” stated Olloqui, who all through Javier Azcón’s earlier mandate was one of the vital belligerent figures with the Generalitat within the Sijena dispute.

During the occasion, the speeches of the complainants have been particularly political, admitting that the criticism is, presumably, the final possibility left to cease the execution of a sentence that Mascarell has stated is meant to be “a humiliation”: “They have the conviction that Catalanness must be liquidated.” Tresserras, with an analogous speech, has defended the safety of MNAC technicians in opposition to doable complaints.

“We cannot resign ourselves,” Borràs identified when she spoke, certain of getting “the force of reason.” In his opinion, there are three axes that information the criticism: the preservation of an “extremely valuable and fragile” asset, interesting to shared accountability to search out options and preserving the suitable to tradition, in reference to creating it accessible to the best variety of individuals.

With hardly any progress

Since the Supreme Court ruling, little progress has been made within the switch of the Sijena murals. Doubts proceed about how the return of the work from the chapter home will finish, a jewel of Romanesque artwork, though badly broken by the fireplace that devastated the monastery in Huesca. That work, began in 1936 and moved to Barcelona, ​​is the one with the worst situation in case it must be moved. Another factor are the so-called “profane paintings”, which had been in different rooms of the Aragonese monastery till they had been additionally torn down within the Sixties. In a greater state of conservation having escaped the flames of 1936, the MNAC has indicated that it is able to restore them and, in truth, has already put out to tender for an organization to take cost of their removing earlier than the top of this yr. SIT, Projects, Design and Conservation is the one firm that has offered itself, though the MNAC has requested it to accredit the Single European Procurement Document, a declaration on the monetary state of affairs, capabilities and suitability for a public procurement process.