-
Transfer of works from the Prado Museum during the Civil War II
361 artworks were from the prado museum, the rest belonged to the museum of modern art, the monastery of el escorial and others…
but at the end this expedition ended up returning to madrid in september 1939, and the works were put in the spanish gallery without any damage. -
background I
Ricardo de Orueta was at the head of the general directorate of fine arts.During the march of Madrid, the rebel troops fought in Toledo, where the siege of the Alcázar was stopped.In the city of Toledo, prior to this event, from the first moments of the summer of 1936, the city's monuments and works of art were defended The Committee for the Defense of the Artistic Monuments of the Popular Front of Toledo was created.Since then the actions of the Committee were reflected in the session diaries. -
background I
After the battle of Toledo, General Varela's troops headed for Madrid. The state of mind of the population made one think of a strong combat, a situation that was confirmed in the so-called Battle of the University City, in Moncloa after that The situation alarmed many conservatives and artists; it was feared that there would be uncontrolled situations in the big cities. -
Junta de Incautación y Protección del Patrimonio Artístico I
a Board was created for the moment without a name and without financial endowment that, in relation to the general director of Fine Arts, was made up of seven members
which was created by the uncontrolled burning of temples and the taking of religious buildings and private palaces by parties and organizations during the first moments of the war, it was created on July 23, 1936 -
Junta de Incautación y Protección del Patrimonio Artístico II
On August 1, a new creation called the Board of Embargo and Protection of Artistic Heritage was created, now with an economic endowment, and it established among its functions that of proceeding with the “embargo or conservation by the State of all works, furniture or real estate, of artistic, historical or bibliographical value, which due to the present abnormal circumstances offer, in his opinion, danger of ruin, loss or deterioration -
planning I
To plan the evacuation, a series of things are done, a series of previous operations are carried out, such as: the selection of the works to be evacuated, the carrying out of examinations and the preparation of files and reports, the preparation of the works and transport packaging, the search for trucks on the battle front, the delivery and placement of the works in temporary warehouses and their definitive installation. -
planning II
For each work, a report was made that contained data such as the author of the work, title, surface, measurements and this file was completed with a history of the trip that was made, time of departure, time of arrival and atmospheric conditions.
Some works were in very poor condition and the curators of the museum itself refused to be transferred, in most cases it was considered that the risk was greater if these works remained in Madrid during the conflict -
Transfer of works from the Prado Museum during the Civil War I
The transfer of works from the Prado Museum was an important date in the history of this museum; this transfer consisted in the evacuation of important artworks from the gallery of Madrid during the civil war.
The transfer that consisted of almost 2000 works began in 1936, it was planned to be destined to Valencia, but later part of the world continued to travel to Catalonia , until they ended at the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva ( Switzerland ). -
Period: to
transfere of the artworks
-
Junta de Incautación y Protección del Patrimonio Artístico III
This creation had as its objective the intervention in museums, palaces in order to be able to transfer objects for their conservation, although their objective was bio hindered because on several occasions they had to face bombings and news that arrived from the battlefront.
the presidency of this structure was in the painter Timoteo Perez Rubio until the end of the war in 1939 -
Junta de Incautación y Protección del Patrimonio Artístico IV
The Prado Museum was preventively closed on August 30 1936 and the first evacuation order was sent to the deputy director of the Sánchez Cantón Museum on November 5 1936 when the confrontation took place in the city,in what would be the battle of the College.City that technically will last three years, and during those months there were many bombings and combats that affected the Prado Museum and other museums.This situation made the republican government decide to evict the artistic heritage -
transfer to Valencia
After the planning of how the works would be carried out, the assembly of the trucks that will go to Valencia began, military trucks equipped with fire extinguishers were used.
In the first expedition it was seen that some paintings could not pass over the bridges due to the packaging, and this forced them to be transferred by hand to the other shore, and when they arrived in Valencia they were delivered to the General Directorate of Fine Arts.