The MNAC must return the murals to Sixena before May 2027

BarcelonaThe Huesca judge has set a deadline of 56 weeks, just over a year, for the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) to return the murals from the chapter house of the Monastery of Sijena. 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 statements about this resolution and that their lawyers will study it. The judge has set a period 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, as she left the presentation of the Pau Casals Year, that she will contact the MNAC's management to understand the "real situation" of the case.

In parallel, the complaint filed by former Culture councilors Lluís Puig, Laura Borràs, Ferran Mascarell, Joan Manuel Tresserras, and Àngels Ponsa on March 24 against the Huesca judge before the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA) is proceeding. They are seeking that she halt any action derived from the execution of the transfer of the works to avoid putting at "risk" the legal value to be protected, i.e., 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 resolution 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 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 prior 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 dismantling, 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 resolution, the judge determines that the MNAC must justify successively and documented the fulfillment of each of the phases foreseen in its timeline for the return. Failure to comply with the established calendar, 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 appropriate, for the expenses incurred. "There is a desire to avoid the procedural filibustering we have been facing," stated Olloqui, for whom it is not a time for more "complications", but for compliance and documentary and reliable accreditation of fulfillment.

Likewise, Olloqui commented that when the paintings arrive in Aragon, a process of verification of their state 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 no deadline has been given to see the paintings in the monastery. "We will not run before we walk, it would be an unnecessary rush," he stressed.