The MNAC must return the murals to Sijena before May 2027

BarcelonaThe judge from Huesca has set a deadline of 56 weeks, just over a year, for the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) to return the murals from the chapter house of the Sijena monastery. The resolution, dated last Friday, has already been notified to the Aragonese and Catalan institutions, and was made public this Monday. The deadline expires on May 10, 2027. MNAC sources indicate that the museum will not make any statements about this resolution and that its lawyers will study it. The judge has set a deadline of five business days for them to file a motion for reconsideration, without interrupting the execution or the deadlines.

Upon learning of the decision, the Director General of Culture of the Government of Aragon, Pedro Olloqui, celebrated the news and described it as "excellent" for the Aragonese, as it definitively opens the door to the return of the paintings "irreversibly". Olloqui specified that the countdown begins this Monday, with the notification to the parties, and that the cost of transferring the works to the monastery must be borne by the MNAC. On the other hand, the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández, stated afterwards, upon leaving the presentation of the Pau Casals Year, that she will contact the MNAC's management to ascertain the "real situation" of the case.

In parallel, the complaint filed on March 24 by former Culture ministers Lluís Puig, Laura Borràs, Ferran Mascarell, Joan Manuel Tresserras, and Àngels Ponsa against the Huesca judge before the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA) continues its course. They seek to have any action derived from the execution of the transfer of the works halted to avoid "endangering" the legal value to be protected, namely, the murals. The complaint requests several precautionary measures, such as asking the Huesca judge to halt any action derived from the execution of the transfer of the works.

A three-phase procedure

According to the ruling accessed by ARA, the judge does not oppose the creation of the technical commission requested by the Vilanova de Sixena City Council and the museum, which has repeatedly stated its technical inability to carry out the transfer. The judge states that if the parties reach an agreement on the composition of the commission and on the object of the opinion, they may present "a concrete and alternative timeline", but that it cannot exceed in any case the 56 weeks set by the order.

The deadline made public this Monday derives from the 64-week forecast made by the MNAC itself, while the Aragonese side had presented one of 28 weeks. But the judge reduces the times for the first three phases, because she considers that the first one of preliminary studies is already done. Furthermore, she reduces the risk analysis phase to 4 weeks and the methodological phase to 3, during which the technical methods and procedures for the disassembly, transfer, and reassembly of the paintings will be defined and specified, because she considers that a large part of this work was already done in the previous phase.

In her ruling, the judge determines that the MNAC must successively and documentarily justify compliance with each of the phases provided for in its timeline for the return. Non-compliance with the established schedule, even if partial and in any of the phases, will enable the Government of Aragon to request and carry out the execution under its responsibility and at the expense of the MNAC, with a claim, if applicable, for the costs incurred. "There is a will to avoid the procedural filibustering that we have been facing," stated Olloqui, for whom it is not time for more "hassles", but for compliance and documentary and irrefutable proof of compliance.

Likewise, Olloqui commented that when the paintings arrive in Aragon, a verification process of their condition will be opened in case they require any specific work, and that the design for their best installation in the Monastery of Sixena will be applied, although she has not given any deadline to see the paintings in the monastery. "We will not run before we walk, it would be an unnecessary rush," she stressed.

The IPCE report, for the moment, does not

In a separate ruling, the judge has responded to the lawsuit filed by the MNAC regarding the request for the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain (IPCE) to issue a report on the advisability of moving the murals. The judge states that it is not appropriate to consult the IPCE because it is an "interested party" organization, as it depends on the Ministry of Culture and the latter is part of the MNAC's board of trustees. And at the same time, she points out that perhaps later on she will end up requesting a report from the IPCE, considered the highest state body in the matter of protection of heritage assets.