Image: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
An exhibition examining works deposited at the museum by the Francoist Servicio de Defensa del Patrimonio Nacional (SDPAN) runs from 20 February to 4 October 2026. The project presents a review of the museum’s own history and collections, focusing on works deposited by the SDPAN.
The exhibition follows ‘Museu en perill!’, an earlier project that investigated the safeguarding of artworks during the Spanish Civil War. Between 1939 and 1958, the museum received 135 works deposited by the SDPAN in at least nine consignments.
The works came from public institutions, the Church and private collectors in Catalonia, and included pieces from the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair and exhibitions organized by the Dirección General de Bellas Artes in 1937–38. Labels on the works’ reverse sides help reconstruct their movements during the war and postwar period.
Its label identified it as ‘Recuperado del enemigo’; after passing through the Pedralbes and Caja de Pensiones deposits, it remained at the museum because it was not claimed.
The exhibition forms part of the Art, War and Memory programme and is curated by Gemma Domènech i Casadevall, Eduard Caballé i Colom and, for the museum, Eduard Vallès.
