Sixena case: the Generalitat plays its last legal card before resorting to the Constitutional Court

BarcelonaThe legal battle for the murals in the chapter house of the Sixena monastery continues. As the ARA has learned, the legal services of the Generalitat have just filed an incident of nullity of proceedings against the order of the Provincial Court of Huesca, dated June 2nd, which confirmed the exclusion of the Generalitat in the execution of the sentence that obliges the transfer of the mural paintings preserved at the MNAC to the Sixena monastery. This incident can be considered, if the Provincial Court of Huesca does not take it into consideration, as the previous step to elevate the case to the Constitutional Court.

The Government requests that the incident of nullity be admitted, that the challenged order be provisionally suspended and declared null so that the Generalitat is guaranteed the possibility of exercising the right to "effective judicial protection" and that the museum technicians intervene in the execution procedure, "in defense of public interests linked to the preservation of cultural heritage".

The legal department's brief argues that the Court's interpretation of article 13 of the civil procedure law is excessively "restrictive and formalistic", as it limits the intervention of interested third parties to declarative processes and excludes them in the execution phase. According to the Generalitat, this interpretation is contrary "to the principle pro actione and to the constitutional jurisprudence on the right of access to judicial processes", because, by preventing its participation in the process, it generates a situation of "material defenselessness". Therefore, it prevents the Generalitat from "filing allegations and acting in defense of public interests linked to the conservation of the paintings during the execution of the sentence".

The Generalitat already intervened as a "partially joined party" in the main proceeding that led to the sentence ordering the transfer of the paintings and also participated in previous incidents related to its execution. The Government considers that its interest does not disappear with the finality of the sentence, but rather becomes especially relevant in the execution phase, given that it is the moment when "judicial decisions can directly affect the conservation and integrity of the paintings".

The dismantling of the profane paintings of the Sixena monastery is postponed

This Friday, changes have also been announced in the schedule for the transfer of the profane paintings from the Monastery of Sixena preserved at the MNAC. According to museum sources, their technicians have been forced to dismantle the operation planned for next Monday because they have not received "definitive authorization" from the Aragonese government. The dismantling will be postponed to a new date, yet to be defined and pending authorization. The technicians, however, warn that organizing the operation requires time, as "it cannot be improvised".

Last week, the MNAC had communicated by letter to the government of Aragon that it would begin the dismantling of the profane works of Sixena on July 6th to send them before August. The government of Aragon demanded from the MNAC the descriptive technical project of "the deinstallation, packaging, transport, and unpacking operations of the profane paintings, as well as the updated conservation study and the needs for prior consolidation". "We have responded to the MNAC's letter to remind the museum that the mural and profane paintings are integral assets of the Aragonese cultural heritage and, therefore, the actions to be carried out for the execution of their transfer are subject to the necessary prior authorization by the Aragonese public authority in charge of cultural heritage protection, which in this case is the Provincial Commission of Cultural Heritage of Huesca," stated a few days ago the vice president and minister of the Presidency, Justice, Culture and Sport of the government of Aragon, Mar Vaquero. "The communication received from the MNAC announcing that the profane works could arrive before August and that the dismantling would take place on July 6th surprised us due to the haste" and because the "necessary and due" prior administrative intervention by Aragon to authorize the process was missing, pointed out the vice president.

The MNAC awarded the transfer of the profane paintings of Sixena via tender to the company SIT Proyectos, Diseño y Conservación S.L., which is based in Coslada (Madrid). SIT will carry out the work for 62,508.29 euros and the cost will have to be fully covered by the Catalan museum. It is the only one that submitted a bid for the contract for the deinstallation, packaging, transport, and unpacking of this artistic ensemble affected by the Supreme Court ruling.