It's not easy to explain the sadness and anger with which I received the news a few months ago that the Thyssen Museum in Sant Feliu de Guíxols was going to Barcelona. Any reader of this column knows how much I love the painting. I assumed they would pave the entire area surrounding the monastery with a hard floor, like that of a department store, which burns in summer and slips when it rains; that they would cover the old-fashioned sandstone and turn such a noble and characteristic part of my city into another hard square. Nothing made me want the pavement to bury Roman remains: there was a higher purpose. I was even willing to applaud the project of a Madrid architectural firm to fill the space where the monastery cloister should be with a concrete sarcophagus that would block out the spiritual radiation from the very heart of our history. I admit it, I was willing to completely depersonalize the Porta Ferrada—a monument so emblematic that it gives its name to a festival that brings the best music in the world here every summer.
I'm not like an acquaintance of mine, Felipe, who is one of those who say "no to everything." In his opinion, public works are only done for hidden interests. He's a savage, Felipe, and I'm not willing to go along with his line, although I must admit that the corruption scandals of late sometimes leave me without arguments. But that's just Madrid.
So when I learned at the end of the year that the Catalan painting collection was going to Barcelona, my disappointment was monumental. And we didn't even mention it until last week, the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Junts (Junts), the PP (People's Party), and Vox (Vox) approved a modification to Barcelona's Architectural Heritage Plan so that the Comedia cinema building, the Palau Marcet, would reach nine floors and the museum would thus have shops and a restaurant. How envious! With the operation promoted by a philanthropic investment fund, how many art-loving tourists will visit Barcelona! Do you see, Felipe, how logical the airport expansion is? It's not right to be envious, but I can't help but be saddened by the number of buses full of cultural tourists who will no longer come to leave their wealth in Sant Feliu.
But that's not all, Felipe, because we're also talking about our finest painting. Sometimes it seems as if we forget that this is an ambitious cultural policy initiative and that art lovers will now have access to some 400 paintings from Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza's Catalan painting collection. I can't wait to grab Sarfa and go see it. In the meantime, readers, have a great summer. See you in September.
