After more than a decade of legal struggle, the Supreme Court of Spain ruled that a 13th-century Romanesque fresco – lived from the Sijena Norastery during the Spanish Civil War, since the Catalonian National Museum of Art (MNAC) (MNAC) (MNAC) (MNAC) (MNAC) – Must – Must in the original home of Must.
according to El PaisThis decision was called a victory by the Aragon government. But experts warn that it could be achieved at a huge cultural cost, and MNAC submitted a document that requires further research on the vulnerability of the work.
The mural was demolished after the monastery’s chapter house was destroyed by a fire in 1936, and even through protection standards was considered fragile. They are mounted on stretchers and partially rebuilt, and are preserved under climate controlled conditions of MNAC. Catalan officials and museum protectors believe that moving them now could cause irreversible damage.
The latest ruling dismissed past agreements that the Catalan government claims to legalize its custody of the work, finding that the original owner (Sijena religious order) never ceded ownership and there is no valid transfer of ownership.
The court’s ruling restricted several years of jurisdiction between Aragon and Catalonia. However, although the legal issues of ownership have been resolved, the practical issues of enforcement have not been resolved. MNAC officials insist that the murals cannot be safely moved without a comprehensive collaborative protection program, which assesses environmental risks, transportation logistics, and the status of the Sijena website itself.
MNAC’s court papers said: “The comprehensive view of the protection project needs to take into account the stages of diagnosis, risk assessment and management, work preparation, removal, packaging and transportation related to subsequent installations at the destination.” El País.
Some compromises may be underway: The museum proposes a phased approach, which suggests that less delicate works were removed in the 1960s and could be returned first. However, the fate of the central mural remains in a dilemma, suspending legal certainty and physical vulnerability.
