The Supreme Court orders the Generalitat to return the Sijena works exhibited at the MNAC.
Salvador Illa respects the Sijena ruling and leaves it up to the MNAC to protect the works.
BarcelonaThe final fate of the paintings from the chapter house of the Sijena Monastery has been decided: this Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Aragonese side in the appeals for cassation and procedural infringement filed by the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) in October 2020. The verdict, which came as an exception and upheld the claim of the Aragonese government and ordered the MNAC to return the paintings, was later ratified by the Huesca Court in 2020. However, the MNAC's lawyers managed to stop the provisional return of the paintings ordered by the Huesca Court of First Instance No. 2. The court found that the paintings did not meet the conditions required for their transfer.
The conclusions of the technical reports submitted by the museum, including those by the Sistine Chapel restorer, Gianluigi Colalucci, and Simona Sajeva, an engineer specializing in mural conservation, were that it is impossible to move the murals without damaging them and advised against returning them.
The Supreme Court responded to the appeals by confirming that the government of Aragon has the power to exercise the claim "as the assignee of the rights by the owner of the paintings, [which is] the religious community established in the monastery of Sijena, a transfer ratified by the Papal Commissioner." It also upheld the lawsuit that ordered the MNAC to return the mural paintings removed from the chapter house of the Sijena monastery.
The precedent of disobedience
The Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, has called for "caution": "We are analyzing the ruling carefully and in-depth. The priority of the Government and the MNAC is the preservation of the heritage. All the reports we have presented and those available to experts in the field indicate that it is impossible to remove and move the paintings," the minister insisted, insisting that the objective is to "maintain the heritage." Speaking from Kobe, where he continues his official trip to Japan, the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, also took a balanced view: he expressed his "respect" for the ruling, but left it up to the MNAC to determine how to protect the works to avoid damage. However, he maintained that this is a "technical debate" where, in his opinion, there is no unanimous opinion. -reports Martina Alcobendas.
The issue of who should carry out the transfer and how it should be done will be discussed between the Ministry's legal services and the MNAC board of trustees. The board includes the Generalitat (Catalan government), the City Council, and the Ministry of Culture. The board did not comment on this Wednesday, although the Ministry stated that "they are in contact." In the coming days, the museum's board of trustees will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss how to proceed with the process and whether it can be referred to the Constitutional Court. Catalonia has always maintained that the enforcement of the rulings would conflict with Catalan cultural heritage law.
The dispute was a high-voltage political standoff, especially during Santi Vila's time as Minister of Culture. Both he and his successor, Lluís Puig, ended up on trial for disobedience for not facilitating the removal of the objects from the Museum of Lleida. which finally took place in December 2017 through judicial interventionIn fact, Puig He has been acquitted eight years later, this 2025, while Santi Vila has the case open, after his amnesty request was rejected. Santi Vila did sign in the summer of 2016 the output of a set of objects from the MNAC: It was thought to be a minor concession to prevent the paintings from leaving.
The director of the MNAC, Pepe Serra, said at the time that removing them was an "international downgrade" and that it would not be under his direction. Serra reiterated today that the museum's concern has always been "the conservation of the paintings" and that this "has been done impeccably." "The museum has never disputed the ownership of the piece but rather the custody of damaged remains that the museum saved and has preserved in an extraordinary way," and which it has also made available to everyone in "a public museum with a major international presence."
The former Minister of Culture and Junts MP, Lluís Puig, denounced that this act "will cause irreversible damage to a part of Catalan cultural heritage of incalculable value," and said that "those responsible for all this will one day have to be held accountable."
The "immense satisfaction" of the President of Aragon
The President of Aragon, Jorge Azcón (PP), has celebrated eleven years of uninterrupted litigation on social media.
To date, Catalonia has lost all the heritage disputes initiated by the Aragonese authorities. The case involving the chapter house paintings is a separate one from that of the 97 works from the MNAC and the Museu de Lleida that were already transferred to the Sijena Monastery. The Aragonese site has been undergoing renovations for two and a half years because it lacked the minimum conditions to house works of art. It reopened this March, exhibiting 28 pieces from Lleida and Barcelona, obtained through the application of Article 155. They had not been on display since 2017.
Where does the dispute come from?
The paintings in the chapter house of the Sijena Monastery are considered one of the most important collections of Iberian Romanesque paintings. In 1936, during the first weeks of the Civil War, it was looted, desecrated, and burned. The paintings were rescued by the Committee for the Rescue of Artistic Heritage of the Generalitat of Catalonia, under the direction of Josep Gudiol, who at the time was responsible for the protection of private collections and artistic assets in the churches of Catalonia and the Franja de Aragón, which was then part of the diocese of Lleida. The inhabitants of Vilanova themselves, including the mayor, helped him remove the damaged and faded remains.
In 1940, the murals were restored in the improvised workshop at Casa Amatller, financed by the Barcelona City Council, and passed to the Art Museum of Catalonia. For this reason, the paintings are preserved mounted on wooden frames and supports—created ad hoc to be exhibited at the MNAC—and with the colors altered following the fire that struck the monastery in August 1936. What can be seen at the MNAC is a montage, which also has a historical character, which includes 70% of the original paintings and 30% of parts restored by Gudiol with gray. The entire collection has been on permanent display since 1961.
The nuns of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem ceded the mural paintings indefinitely to the Generalitat (Catalan Government) in December 1992 and undertook to complete all the necessary procedures to obtain permission to donate them. However, the community dissolved before the signing, so years later another Sanjuanista congregation in Álava claimed ownership of them. The litigation began in 2014 with a claim by the government of Aragon and the City Council of Vilanova de Sijena for the paintings to be returned to the monastery. The government of Aragon acts under the authority granted to it by the nuns of the community of the Comendadoras de San Juan de Jerusalén.
