Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'The plundering of the Sijena paintings would be like today, not like in 1936'

We are still reeling from this week's fires, which fortunately have been brought under control.

Agramunt is in mourning, because the fire caught two cattle ranchers traveling in their cars and killed them. They were the 32-year-old owner of the farm, who came to the rescue of one of his 45-year-old workers. He even called home and 911, saying it was burning. It's a death as sad as it is heroic.

I echo a recommendation from the Firefighters: in the face of these unstoppable, rapid, voracious fires, no escape, and even less so in a car, if it is not very clearThe best course of action is to stay indoors, to self-isolate. The head of the Generalitat Fire Department, David Borrell, says: "With the buildings we have in Catalonia—made of brick, stone, and masonry—it's highly unlikely that with the windows closed we'll have any internal damage. We're safest in lockdown."

Meanwhile, Pedro Sánchez's government continues to hang by a thread, specifically the possibility of evidence emerging that he knew what was going on or that the party profited, but for now it's holding up. The governing partner, Sumar, not wanting to be implicated, is calling for urgent measures. Sánchez is expected to announce measures within the party on Saturday. He will announce government measures on Wednesday of next week in Congress. For now, no one here is breaking with Sánchez, none of the parties in the investiture majority, so Feijóo will attend his party's congress, also this Sunday, with no possibility of announcing a viable vote of no confidence that would make him prime minister.

By the way, I told you on Monday that Cerdán's lawyer, Benet Salellas, had opted for a more political line of defense, given that the right wing isn't hiding its euphoria over the Puigdemont negotiator being in prison. Well, he says: today Salellas in The Country:

"We believe that the Civil Guard's actions are conditioned by the interests of certain sectors of the state that want to oust Sánchez." He adds: "There are shady figures in the Civil Guard linked to Vox." Incidentally, contrary to what has been circulated, Puigdemont did not recommend Cerdán appoint Salellas as his defense counsel.

And I'm done. Don't miss the explanations from the director of the MNAC, Pepe Serra, on the paintings of Sijena.

He was very clear: complying with the ruling could cause irreparable damage to the paintings. He gave an example: some time ago, museum technicians extracted microsamples of the murals and placed them in an office environment to see how they would react, and they observed that they deteriorated much more than similar samples of the paintings from Sant Climent de Taüll. And what a surprise: Serra warns that it is essential to know their destination, whether it will be the monastery or an Aragonese museum. "You can't carry out a removal project without knowing how they will be placed, and the MNAC hasn't received technical accreditation regarding the destination."

There is no doubt that the looting of Sijena took place now, not when the Generalitat saved what it could of the paintings in 1936.

Good morning.