Famous Picasso painting is planned for Bilbao but Spain’s Minister of Culture explained why it won’t happen.
O Basque Country wants to see “Guernica”by Pablo Picasso, exhibited in Bilbao for eight months, but the painting, in a fragile state and already damaged, cannot travelsay technicians from the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
“I understand the sensitivity behind this request. We are talking about a work linked to the memory of Gernika and the pain that she symbolizes”, recognized this Tuesday the Minister of Culture of Spain, Ernest Urtasun, in a speech in the Senate (upper house of the Spanish Courts).
“My obligation as a minister is guarantee access to culture but also guarantee the protection of heritage. In matters like this it is always necessary to listen to the technicians and particularly those who have taken care of the work for 30 years to preserve it properly. The reports are clear and strongly advise against transporting the piece with strictly technical criteria because of the risks which cause vibrations that are inevitable in any transport and which can cause new cracks, lifting, loss of pictorial layers or even tears”, added the minister.
Ernest Urtasun confirmed, in the Senate, the negative response of the Government of Spain to the request of the Basque regional government, which asked to borrow “Guernica” to be exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, in Bilbao, between October 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027.
The objective was to have Picasso’s work in the Basque Country coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the first Basque government, on October 7, 1936, and the bombing of the Basque city Gernika, by Nazi aviation, during the Spanish civil war.
The first Basque government was established in Gernika, a few months after the military uprising against the Spanish Republic that led to the civil war of 1936-39 and, later, the dictatorship led by Francisco Franco until 1975.
This executive was a coalition of parties loyal to the Republic led by José Antonio Aguirre, who began living in exile in 1937.
Picasso’s work, a painting of 1937 measuring approximately 340×776 centimeters, acquired by the Spanish State in the same year, it invokes the bombing of Gernika and was under the care of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMa), in the USA, until 1981, when it was handed over to Spain.
Picasso delivered the painting to MoMa and asked that just go to Spain when the democracy not country.
“Guernica” has been at Reina Sofia since 1992 and since then he has never left this museum, which has always refused any loan request, citing the risks of new transport and the damage and deterioration that the work suffered in the past with several trips, which took it to 11 countries.
“Celebrating Gernika’s 90th birthday should also be ensure that this work can last another 90 years. May he continue to explain to future generations the horror of war and fascism that Picasso wanted to denounce”, defended the Spanish Minister of Culture.
Ernst Urtasun said that this “is not just any painting”, it is “probably one of the most fragile and complex works of the 20th century to preserve“, highlighting that this is why he has not left Rainha Sofia since 1992.
The minister, citing reports from technicians at the Madrid museum, referred to “the accumulated deterioration” nos transport previous ones and highlighted that there is unanimity on the part of technicians in advising against new transport.
Senator Igotz Lopez, from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV, in its Spanish acronym), appealed to the minister to make a new report involving peritos internacionais and not just those at the Queen Sofia Museum, highlighting that there have been many technical advances in recent decades in the transport of works of art.
“Guernica” has already toured 11 countries and been transported more than 40 times, although it has never been to the Basque Country, lamented the senator, who highlighted the “emotional symbolic” meaning that the work has “for the Basque people”.
In recent days, the Basques’ request has led to an exchange of accusations of parochialism between the leaders of the PNV and the Popular Party (PP) in Madrid.
The Minister of Culture expressed “institutional respect and empathy” with the request made by the Basque Country and condemned the statements made by the leader of the PP in Madrid and the Madrid regional government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
