Barcelona museum refuses to return Sijena murals to monastery – The Art Newspaper

One of the crucial spectacular surviving masterpieces of Romanesque artwork, the Sijena murals have lengthy been a distinguished emblem of Spanish heritage. Now, nonetheless, a long-running battle over their guardianship has flared up, with a neighborhood municipality accusing a Barcelona museum of failing to guard them correctly and threatening authorized motion for defamation.

Painted within the twelfth century by an nameless artist, the Sijena murals had been created for the arches of the chapter home on the Royal Monastery of Sijena in Aragón and are sometimes described because the “Sistine Chapel of Romanesque artwork”. The murals depict biblical scenes—together with the Creation of Adam and Eve, the expulsion from Paradise, and Noah’s Ark and the flood—and had been badly broken throughout the Spanish Civil Conflict, when anarchists set fireplace to the monastery. They had been eliminated to Barcelona in 1936 for restoration and have remained on public show on the metropolis’s Museu Nacional d’Artwork de Catalunya (MNAC) since 1961. They’re at the moment displayed in a sealed part of the Oval Corridor, a big centre at MNAC constructed within the Nineteen Twenties for cultural occasions, on specifically made arches created to appear to be these on the monastery.

Following years of authorized dispute, in Might final yr Spain’s supreme courtroom ordered MNAC to return the works to the Sijena monastery. MNAC was given a month to ship the works however that deadline was not noticed, with the museum saying the works’ situation wanted to be evaluated earlier than their removing could possibly be authorised.

Controversy intensified in November over a music occasion by the Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía within the Oval Corridor, deliberate as a presentation for her new album, Lux. Claiming vibrations from the efficiency might harm the delicate murals, Jorge Español, a lawyer representing the municipality of Villanueva de Sijena, filed a request for the occasion to be cancelled. The live performance went forward as deliberate.

Pepe Serra, MNAC’s director, later publicly commented on the affair. “What’s unacceptable is contemplating {that a} Rosalía live performance might have an effect on the work and that squeezing them into 74 items is well completed. Whoever says this must see a physician,” he stated whereas presenting the museum’s 2026 programme at a convention in December.

His remarks drew a livid response from Español, who threatened to sue Serra for defamation and demanded he pay €90,000 to compensate for “ethical damages”. Individually, Pedro Olloqui, the Aragón area’s director of tradition, accused Serra of displaying an “insupportable contempt”.

‘Technical arguments’

A spokesperson for the museum tells The Artwork Newspaper that no lawsuit had been filed on the time of talking. She provides that concert events had been frequently held on the Oval Corridor, with out prior criticism, and denies they risked compromising the murals. “The Oval Corridor, the place Rosalía’s listening occasion passed off, frequently hosts occasions, together with concert events,” the spokesperson says. “The Sijena rooms are fully remoted, so there’s completely no threat.”

Requested why the museum has not but returned the murals, the spokesperson says MNAC’s place has “all the time been based mostly purely on technical arguments” and is “grounded in scientific evaluation and information of the artworks”. A report collectively issued by the Catalonia regional authorities and the Barcelona metropolis council in August concluded that varied layers of paint on the murals confirmed indicators of injury, including that adjustments in local weather, vibrations or motion might trigger deterioration. The work had been at the moment steady as a result of the museum is local weather managed and constantly monitored, the report stated.

In a separate report issued in September, ICCROM, a Rome-based organisation devoted to advancing the conservation of cultural heritage, “strongly suggested” finishing up a complete values-based threat evaluation earlier than relocating the murals. “The dangers of transportation and reinstallation on the Monastery of Sijena are usually not totally identified, which raises issues relating to the preservation wants of the work,” the ICCROM report states. “This could embrace not solely materials issues but additionally a heritage values evaluation, weighing the social and cultural significance of relocating the work along with the fabric conservation dangers, to determine applicable measures.”

The municipality of Villanueva de Sijena didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.