In the midst of a careful staging worthy of the end of a war, and before more than 50 media cameras, some coming from outside Spain for the occasion, Carmen Cervera, the Minister of Culture Miquel Iceta, on behalf of the State Government Spanish, and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza have proceeded this morning to the long signature of the Agreement that allows permanence in Spain of the Mata Mua and an important part of the Baroness collection Thyssen-Bornemisza.
The most famous picture of Postimpressor French painter Paul Gauguin already hangs up in the Madrid Museum's rooms. It has been a long journey in which intensified negotiations, withdrawals from the Parties, principles of agreement and delays have been developed for almost a decade.
"It has been a lot of effort from the two parties, but today at last it is a beautiful reality," the Baroness has declared a satisfied. "Until a few days ago I was not sure that the painting was here between us, today we have the honor and privilege of enjoying this and other paintings that make up a collection of the most important in the world. This firm is a happy ending" , the Minister of Culture concluded.
The leasing contract ensures the permanence of the painting in Spain, along with 320 works belonging to the Carmen Thyseen-Bornemisza collection, a quarter less than the current guarantee, for 15 years. In return, Baroness will receive 6.5 million euros per year as a loan. After that time, and paid the total amount, 97.5 million euros, the state will be able to opt for the purchase of the painting, discounting the paid's final price. This can assume reissue in the future the familiar problems today.
The Mata Mua has returned to Spain after the flight that he starred two years ago. The action, occurred in full confinement, was considered a pressure measure of the baroness and was about to cost the definitive rupture of the negotiations. Since then, the painting has remained stored in a Bunker of Andorra.
The trip from Andorra to Madrid and the signing of the agreement have placed the event at the level of the signing of a football star or the concert of a music star. The media have realized them with all luxury details. The waterproof box built for the occasion, the neutral pH packaging, antimanipulation seals, the sealed truck, air-conditioned and with moisture control system, an escort of three cars of the national police, the convoy that, without exceeding 90 kilometers Per hour, he has crossed Spain for a route known for very few people. A transfer that does not detract from the exchanges of spies of the cold war.
The most veterans have remembered the Rocambolesco Travel of another uppercase, that occasion with antibral crystal and the escort of the civil guard. It was the arrival of the Guernica de Picasso to Spain, when the MoMA of New York returned the picture in 1981.
Mata Mua, which is usually translated by once, too, in the past or yesteryear, is dated in 1892 and belongs to the Tahitian stage, the most appreciated of the French painter. When Gauguin presented it in public he had no predicament, it was a style too avant-garde for that time.
After going through several collections, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza acquired it in 1984 half with Bolivian Ortiz Patino, another capricious art collector. They reached an agreement not to pay an excessive price to the Sotheby's auction house. In total, 3.8 million dollars. Each one would enjoy the picture two and a half years. After five years, they would seek a new agreement. They did not succeed and the painting came back to auction. On that occasion the Baron pied strong and was done with the work in exchange for 24.2 million dollars, record of the time.
The long-awaited work of Gauguin already hangs up in the renewed rooms of Thyssen-Bornemisza, open a few weeks ago and in which the best hollow had reserved, in the center of the other seven Gauguin paintings of the collection. Converted into a symbol of the Madrid Museum, from before being exposed to the public, the primitivism of Mata Mua has moved to the Mannerism of the Paradise of Tintoretto and the realism of the loneliness of Hotel Room of Edward Hopper, the two jewels that in recent years have Reign in the Thyssen.
Date Of Update: 09 February 2022, 08:38
