Uninvited Guests. Episodes on Women, ideology and the visual arts in Spain (1833-1931) is the first temporary exhibition to be organised by the Museo Nacional del Prado following its reopening on 6 June. It offers a reflection on the position of women and the various roles they played within the Spanish art system, from the reign of Isabel II to that of her grandson Alfonso XIII.

Curated by Carlos G. Navarro, a curator in the Museum’s department of 19th-century painting, and with the sponsorship of Fundación AXA, this exhibition is on display in Rooms A and B of the Jerónimos Building until 14 March 2021. Structured into 17 sections, it features a selection of more than 130 works, the majority from the Prado’s own holdings plus others loaned from the royal collections of Patrimonio Nacional and from public and private collections. Most of these works were exhibited in international exhibitions or were awarded prizes at the National Exhibitions, which were established in 1853 to encourage Spanish art and present an ideological image of the nation.

The Museo del Prado is reopening with a spectacular new installation of its permanent collection.

The Central Gallery, an extensive architectural space flooded with natural light, now becomes the principal axis for this new hanging which includes the majority of the collection’s most iconic works, offering a unique and unprecedented experience.

“Reunited” remains on view until 29 November and has involved the relocation of more than 190 works. It evokes the type of display that existed when the Museo del Prado first opened to the public.

Visitors to the Museum have the chance to appreciate the exceptional group of 101 cases which, together with the 23 on display in the Dauphin’s Treasure gallery, comprise one of the most complete holdings of its kind in the world, with examples from the 16th to the 18th centuries. These cases were designed to protect the valuable and unique objects in the Treasure, for which reason each one has a diff erent shape. They have wooden cores and are lined with different materials.

Most of the cases are covered on the outside with fi ne leather decorated with dry stamping and gilt tooling of primarily heraldic motifs, particularly the emblems of the Grand Dauphin. Other cases are covered in costly fabrics such as velvet.

Among the initiatives to celebrate the Museum’s Bicentenary, and with the title “Audiovisual memory of the Museo del Prado”, a new documentary archive brings together the audiovisual history of the Museum – its buildings and collections – for the first time through film, NODO news bulletins and television. This selection of audiovisual material, which will come to number more than 400 items over the course of 2019, offers a survey of more than 100 years of images of the Prado.

In collaboration with the Filmoteca and Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), the archive starts with 300 titles, including a previously unseen documentary entitled “Introduction to the Museo del Prado” (1985) by Basilio Martín Patino, the RTVE series “Looking at a painting” with contributions from figures such as Alberti, Cela and Umbral, and full-length cinema films with actors such as Rita Hayworth, Rex Harrison, Tony Leblanc, Aurora Bautista and Concha Velasco, directed by Ramón Masats, Antonio Mercero, Jacinto Molina, Orson Welles and George Marshall, among others.

Spoken history through the experience of the people who have devoted their day to day to the institution.

Thanks to the support of Telefónica as a Benefactor Sponsor of the Visitor Services and other Users improvement programme, the Museo del Prado is now the first Spanish museum and one of the few in the world to make its historical archive available online. By doing so it is leading the way in free access to information by making it possible to consult both its collection of works of art and the contents of its archive online.

This initiative offers nearly 12,000 digitalised documents, including: the Museum’s ground plan and elevation; the list of the paintings on display in the Sala Francesa in 1887; the appointment of Pablo Picasso as the Prado’s director in 1936; and the personal archives of the Madrazo family, of Valentín Carderera, one of the leading figures in the Spanish 19^th-century art world, and of Salvador Viniegra, deputy director of the Museum between 1890 and 1898.