PAIS Vasco politicians are not giving up as they continue to call for Picasso’s Guernica to be transferred from Madrid to Bilbao.
The region’s government hopes to bring the famous artwork to the Guggenheim Museum for a nine-month exhibition that opens at the end of this year to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the first Basque Executive and the bombing of the city.
The latter of these events inspired Picasso’s Guernica and therefore the region wants the painting to be featured in this exhibition.
READ MORE: Picasso’s Guernica revisited: The Malagueno artist’s perplexing masterpiece
Pais Vasco’s regional government leader, Imanol Pradales, called on Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, last week and asked that he authorise the temporary transfer of the painting.
With previous requests having been rejected, Pradales was hoping that this direct question would result in an acceptance; however instead Sanchez forwarded on the request to the Ministry of Culture.
The black and white painting is currently showcased in the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid.
It was moved to Spain’s capital in 1981 and has been there ever since.
The Reina Sofia continues to reiterate, despite constant requests from Pais Vasco politicians, that the painting is too fragile to be moved and that a transfer between the cities could cause structural damage.
In Pradales opinion, refusing to think thoroughly about the transfer would be a ‘grave political error’.
He believes that displaying the painting in the Guggenheim would be ‘a message to the world’ about ‘what war entails and the atrocity that derives from dictatorships’.
Picasso created the piece in 1937 in response to the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian aircrafts that were fighting in support of Franco during the civil war.
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