HUNDREDS of Mexican cultural professionals have expressed their outrage at a plan to export more than 150 works of art to Spain, including masterpieces painted by Frida Kahlo.
Nearly 400 leading figures have signed an open letter calling on the Mexican government to offer an explanation as to why a vital collection of 20th-century Mexican art is set to be displayed in Spain after a deal was struck with Banco Santander.
There is particular concern over the works of Kahlo, which were declared as an ‘artistic monument’ in 1984.
That status means her masterpieces are only ever allowed to leave Mexico on a temporary basis.
The works are set to head to Spain this summer for display at Faro Santander, the bank’s new cultural centre based in the northern city of the same name.
But the statement announcing the agreement with Santander has prompted widespread concern after it failed to disclose when the works would return to Latin America.
That was aggravated further after Faro Santander’s director told El Pais that the deal was ‘flexible’ and the collection would have a ‘permanent presence’ at the venue, located in Cantabria.
The row is centred around a collection of around 160 works previously owned by the collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman, which was bought by the Mexican Zambrano family in 2023.
The Gelman collection, as the selection of art is known, includes works by Kahlo and other important Mexican artists including Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Maria Izquierdo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco.
“It’s a very serious issue,” said Francisco Berzunza, a historian and one of the signatories of the letter.
“Kahlo is the most important artist in the history of our country and it’s easier to see her work outside of Mexico than in Mexico itself”
He added: “This decree was specifically intended to put a lock on private collections, to ensure they would not leave the country or be dispersed – that is why we are defending it so vigorously.”
READ MORE: Police recover Francis Bacon painting worth €5 million stolen from Madrid home in 2015
“If the works were not to return, a fundamental part of this artist’s body of work – and her history – would be lost. She is, after all, the most important female Mexican artist in history.
“These pieces are fundamental to telling her story, and they are fundamental to understanding our identity as Mexicans.”
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has even chimed in on the debate, stressing that her government’s ‘desire is for [the collection] to remain in Mexico’.
Culture minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza said she expected the artworks to return to Mexico in 2028.
In a statement, Santander stressed that the deal ‘does not imply, under any circumstances, either the acquisition of the collection or its permanent removal from Mexico’, adding that the works would ‘return to Mexico at the end of the temporary export period’.
However, the contract signed between Santander and the country’s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature ‘may be extended by mutual agreement through the extension of the present contract’, which runs until September 2030.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
