The MNAC calls for a 'dream team' of global conservation experts to oversee the relocation of the Sijena murals
He accepts an external commission but requests that UNESCO, ICCROM, the Courtauld Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute be involved.
BarcelonaThe MNAC continues its fight to prevent the removal of the murals from the chapter house of the Sijena Monastery. It is now seeking the support of leading international authorities in heritage conservation. With the approval of the Board of Trustees, the museum's legal team filed a motion this morning in Huesca's Court Number 2 proposing the creation of a top-level commission to oversee the dismantling, packing, and transport of the murals.
In this commission, the museum wants the State—via the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (IPCE)—, UNESCO, and ICCROM—the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, based in Rome—to be included. The museum already has a report from ICCROM requesting a "...included." The museum also invokes ICOMOS—another non-governmental organization dedicated to heritage conservation, based in France—, the Courtauld Institute of the University of London, the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, and the Higher Institute for Conservation and Restoration of the Professional University School of Italian Switzerland. This commission would have equal representation from the Government of Aragon and the Vilanova de Sijena City Council as implementing parties, and the museum as the receiving party. The same document states that the MNAC does not wish to participate, accepting a prerogative of the lawyer for Vilanova de Sijena, Jorge Español.
With this proposal, the MNAC finally I would obtain the report from the IPCE, considered the highest state authority on the conservation of cultural property. In October, the museum's president, Joan OliverasHe sent a letter to the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, but it didn't go anywhere.
The MNAC's proposal for a commission has legal merit, because with this document the museum is complying with a court order dated December 9, 2025, in favor of establishing an advisory commission requested by the Vilanova de Sijena City Council, which it had previously declined. Now the museum accepts this commission, provided that its establishment and operation strictly adhere to the Civil Procedure Law, with independent experts sworn to objectivity, who issue individual written reports and respect the principle of procedural legality. At the same time, the museum maintains that the same court order is null and void because this decision was issued without giving the museum a hearing, thus creating a situation of legal defenselessness.
The previous proposal from the Vilanova de Sijena City Council
In his written response to the judge's proposal to form an advisory committee, Vilanova de Sijena's lawyer, Jorge Español, requested that the MNAC (National Art Museum of Catalonia) experts not be included, arguing that they had "self-excluded" themselves by expressing their "technical inability" to carry out the transfer. "According to the principles of good faith, it would be a contradiction to appoint experts who, directly or indirectly, would undermine and create every possible obstacle to the execution of the ruling," Español stated in his brief. For Español, it would be a "contradiction" for the institution that claims "a kind of technical conscientious objection" to the repatriation order to appoint an expert.
Furthermore, Español suggested to the judge that she herself appoint an expert from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Luis to form part of an advisory committee that the lawyer considers "necessary and pertinent" given the complexity of the operation, but which should not issue a final opinion in the ruling of May of this year. More specifically, the Vilanova de Sijena City Council requested the inclusion on the committee of a number of technicians and experts from across the country, with the exception of the Italian restorer Stefano Lupo, who worked with Gianluigi Colalucci on the Sistine Chapel. Five years before his death, Colalucci was very forceful about the case in an interview with The Punt Avui"I wouldn't move the Sijena paintings from the MNAC," he warned. The other proposed members are restoration expert Alfonso Monforte and art history professor at the University of Valencia, María Gómez Rodrigo, historian Juan José Nieto, the architect of the Sijena monastery, Luis Franco Lahoz, and the specialized company Técnicos de Transporte Internacionales (Bovis Group).
