Ministry of Culture and Sport invests over 3.1 million euros in 2020 to buy cultural assets for public collections

Through the General Directorate of Fine Arts, the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport invested over 3.1 million euros (3,149,670.46 euros) in 2020 to buy cultural assets for State-owned public collections, almost 7% higher than the investment made in 2019. These works will be added to the collections at 17 Spanish institutions: ten museums, four archives, the National Library, the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute and Spanish National Heritage.

This budget includes over half a million euros (508,828.50 euros) from the extraordinary financial aid approved under Spanish Royal Decree-Law of 5 May 2020 to support the culture sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. This heading was used for the purchase from galleries of 26 works of contemporary art by 17 Spanish artists. The majority were produced within the last five years and will now join the collection at the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre.

More than 70 cultural assets acquired

The investment enabled the purchase of over 70 cultural assets, which include paintings, sculptures, furnishings, document collections and bibliographies, and installations. The most expensive piece is a painting entitled Crucifixión con santos y donantes attributed to Hugo van der Goes, which will go to the El Prado National Museum and was bought for 1,600,000 euros. This price will be paid in two annual payments of 800,000 euros by the General Directorate of Fine Arts (2020) and the El Prado National Museum itself (2021).

For the collection at the Sorolla Museum, the Ministry of Culture and Sport purchased a piece entitled Caballero con banda by the Valencian artist. Painted during his youth while he was a pupil at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in Valencia, this portrait completes the collection of the museum in Madrid with a piece that shows the strong influence that Velázquez had on Sorolla's paintings.

A sketch by Rosario Weiss entitled Estudio de planta del cardo will join the Museum of Romanticism as part of its goal to raise the profile of the contribution by women to fine arts during the 19th Century.

The National Museum of Sculpture has received an Immaculate Conception by Juan de Mesa, which was presented at the museum in July, and a Virgin with Childin alabaster, from the Escuela Castellana. Dated to circa 1550, this last carving complements the collection of 16th Century sculptures at the museum in Valladolid. The crest appearing on its base means it can be linked to the lineage of Gutiérrez Flores, originally from Brozas in Caceres.

New collections for Spanish archives

The National Historical Archive (Spanish acronym: AHN) will receive the Archivo Martínez Campos, a set of documents consisting of 100 bundles from between 1820 and 1953, mostly unseen by specialists and essential in the understanding of political and military history in Spain during the second half of the 19th Century and the first quarter of the 20th Century.

The AHN is also receiving the Libro de enigmas, a testimony about the celebration of the Corpus in Estepa (Seville). Through its text and 120 drawings, this book reveals the clothing, daily customs and symbolic culture of the 17th Century in Spain.

Of special interest for the study of that same period is the Libro Cadereita, which compiles into a single volume of copies from the time of 160 letters to King Felipe IV from Lope Díez de Aux y Armendáriz, Marques of Cadereita, during his time as royal ambassador to the imperial court in Vienna between April 1631 and April 1632. This piece will complete the collection on Council of State that is kept at the General Archive of Simancas.

Acquisitions in the fields of design, coin collecting and photography

In the field of design, a series of furnishings created to decorate the Torres Blancas building (an iconic work of architecture in Madrid by the architect Sáenz de Oiza) has been acquired for the National Museum of Decorative Arts.

In the field of coin collecting, the National Archaeological Museum is adding one of the finest Roman coins in the world to its collection, an aureus of Augustus, as well as an aureus of Vespasian. These two unique items are from among the few gold coins produced in Roman times in Hispania, in Colonia Patricia (Cordoba) and Tarraco (Tarragona).

The acquisitions also include 18 concertina albums by the photographer, Jean Laurent, which will be added to the photography collections at the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute. They include 215 pre-1875 photographic vistas of 11 Spanish cities: Cordoba, Granada, Seville, Valladolid, Segovia, Salamanca, Madrid, El Escorial, Valencia, San Sebastian and Tarragona.

The document collections acquired by the ministerial department include the Archivo Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio for the National Library of Spain. This personal archive by the writer includes typed and hand-written texts from his literary production, over 1,200 letters (including correspondence with his first wife, Carmen Martín Gaite) and graphic, personal and family-related documents.

Non official translation