It is one of the major attractions of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid and depicts one of the most violent bombings of the Spanish Civil War. Guernica, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937, commemorates the attack on this Basque town, but it will not be moved to mark the 90th anniversary of the tragedy.
The Basque Government requested to temporarily house the work at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, with the aim of contributing to the region’s healing and restoration of dignity. However, after several weeks of dialogue and debate, on Tuesday, April 7 , the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, rejected the proposal.
As he explained during the question period in the Senate plenary session,“the reports from the museum’s technical staff are clear: they strongly advise against the transfer based on strictly technical criteria.”
Protecting heritage
In response to the concerns raised by PNV Senator Igotz López, the Minister of Culture emphasized that his role was “to ensure access to culture, but also to ensure the protection of cultural heritage.”
For his part, the Basque parliamentarian described this decision as“technical immobility.” Furthermore, he appealed to people’s sensibilities to emphasize the need to have the painting present during the commemoration of the bombing of Guernica.
The Fragility of Guernica
Despite the controversy, the matter is closed and the painting will not be moved. According to experts, any transport of the work would inevitably cause vibrations. This could lead to new cracks, lifting, loss of the paint layer, or even tears, as explained by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun.
Pablo Picasso painted * * *Guernica* in 1937 in Paris as a pacifist response to the situation in Spain. Since then, it has been recognized worldwide, traveling through various countries. During the 1940s, it toured cities such as Oslo, London, and Manchester before finding a permanent home at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA).
The work did not arrive in Spain until 1981, when the country had already transitioned to democracy. Initially, it was housed at the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid, until July 1992, when it joined the permanent collection of the Reina Sofía Museum, where it can still be viewed today.
