It is another missed opportunity. Guernica, the masterpiece through which Pablo Picasso alerted international opinion to the atrocities committed by the Francoist camp during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), will not be exhibited in the Spanish Basque Country on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the bombing of the town of Guernica.
The “historical reparation” requested by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the party in power in the region, will not take place.
After numerous unsuccessful requests since 1997, Basque leaders this time were asking the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid to lend the painting to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, to display it there from October 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. Questioned on Tuesday by Senator Igotz López, the Minister of Culture raised technical objections: “Reports advise against the transfer due to the risks it entails. My duty is to preserve this heritage.” The conservators who have overseen the work since its installation at the museum in 1992 warn of the dangers of vibrations, which “could cause new cracks, lifting and loss of the paint layer, as well as rips in the support.”
Disputed conclusions
Basque nationalists see this as a pretext. In a speech last Sunday, the region’s president, Imanol Pradales, declared: “Will the government have the political courage to bring Guernica? They exhumed Franco from his grave and are not capable of bringing back a painting from Madrid to the Basque Country?”
Senator López called on the minister to establish a committee of experts independent from the Reina Sofía. “Current technologies make it possible to transport the work without causing the slightest damage,” he told the newspaper. “The painting has traveled around 40 times; only in the Basque Country has it never been seen!”
Art critic Fernando Castro Flórez is one of the few voices in the field to challenge the Reina’s conclusions. “The painting can be placed in a hydraulically suspended crate to avoid any vibration. Conservators will always forbid touching their masterpiece. It would be more honest to say they do not want to lend it because it is the museum’s flagship work, like Las Meninas by Velázquez for the Prado or the Mona Lisa for the Louvre.”
The Reina Sofía makes an admission in its report: “This emblematic canvas undoubtedly constitutes the centerpiece, the heart of the museum. This is understood not only by all the Centre’s professionals, but also—and even more importantly—by visitors themselves, through their continuous and massive visits to Guernica.” The Basque Country will have to wait longer for “its” Guernica. Could it be until the centenary?
