Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, exhibited at the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, in Madrid
Three Israeli tourists were asked to leave the Madrid museum, after hearing screams of “murderers” and “genocides”. It is not the first time that Reina Sofia, which values its Jewish patrons and benefactors highly, has been accused of anti-Semitic acts.
The Reina Sofía National Art Museum, supervised by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, was the stage for what it calls a episode of racismin which the center’s own staff participated.
The victims were three elderly Jewish womentourists from Israel, who visited the Madrid public museum and were accompanied by a Spanish woman who filmed what happened. The episode occurred last Saturday.
The museum, which has welcomed anti-Israel protest acts as normalconsidered it unacceptable that the three elderly women had objects that identified their Jewish condition, such as the Star of David or the official symbol of Israel.
The tourists were aggressively harassed by visitors who were at the museum, who shouted “genocide!” e “killers!“.The three are retired, one of them with Hungarian roots, whose parents suffered dramatic persecution by the Nazis, notes OK Diário.
Instead of being protected by the museum’s security service, says the newspaper, a head of the center urged one of the agents to expel them. Not taken any measure against those who questioned them.
The Spanish woman who accompanied the three elderly Jewish women, whose mobility is reduced by their age, “politely reprimanded the security guard” for turning against them instead of against those who attacked them. The security guard justified the expulsion because there was “public that is bothering” with the fact that they knew they were Jewish.
The companion of the three tourists, a practicing Catholic and resident of Madrid, reminded him, without success, that displaying religious symbols or flags is not illegal and that what was being committed was a collision in an official center of the Government of Spain, by personnel working for a State body.
“It is unacceptable that, without committing any illegalityif he is subjected to an episode of this severity in official facilities dependent on the Government of Spain”, he criticized, speaking to OK Diário. “They brought perfectly normal Jewish symbolism, in no way offensivelike someone can wear a football club shirt or the flag of their country”.
“As soon as we arrived and saw that they were Jewish, we were subjected to obvious hostility from people on staff at the museum. unworthy, intolerable», insists the Madrid native, who says she is considering file a formal complaint and, where applicable, demand legal responsibilities.
The expulsion of three elderly Israeli visitors, including a Holocaust survivor, from Madrid’s Reina Sofía museum after they were insulted as “child killers” and targeted for displaying Jewish symbols is deeply troubling and unacceptable.
The women were reportedly asked to leave…
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong)
In one on X, the European Jewish Congress called the incident “disturbing and unacceptable, and stated that the incident “raises serious concerns about discrimination within a public cultural institution“.
A spokeswoman for the Museo Reina Sofía said, however, in a statement sent to , that the museum had asked the security department to investigate the incident.
“Furthermore, the Museum wishes to unequivocally state its commitment to equality, religious freedom and zero tolerance against any form of violence or discrimination related to anti-Semitism“, adds the museum statement.
“We would also like to highlight the importance that both Jewish artists like the Jewish patrons and benefactors had for the institution and its Collection, particularly in the context of avant-garde movements, without whose disinterested collaboration the Museum as we know it today would not be conceivable”, concludes the Reina Sofia note.
This it’s not the first time that Israeli organizations denounce the Museo Reina Sofía, an institution with a rich collection of modern and contemporary art, best known for housing the work Guernica, by Pablo Picasso.
In 2024, the museum was the target of controversy for having organized a cycle of conferences and events entitled “From Rio to the Sea”a reference to a slogan used by some protesters demanding equal rights for Palestinians. Certain Israeli officials consider the slogan to be anti-Semitic.
Following the dispute generated by the use of word “genocidal” in the program description, the museum changed the name of the cycle to “Encounters of Critical Thinking” and apologized. Probably aimed especially at their Jewish patrons and benefactors.
