Voces del Prado

1978. Xavier de Salas

Manuela Mena Marqués, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting and Goya, 1978-2019

I knew Xavier de Salas, who represented the Museum with considerable elegance, in a truly aristocratic manner. Not because he was upper-class, but because he was a person of special appeal in terms of both appearance and character. He had lived and travelled a great deal, ranging from Vienna to England. He was of Catalan origin. He had a special something, including a sixth sense and an exquisite eye and exquisite taste, as can be observed in the acquisitions he made with the very few resources at his disposal. But he went to any extreme to purchase these works and they are truly excellent acquisitions, and this is something that has left a definitive mark at the Museo del Prado.
After stepping down as Director of the Prado due to a series of extraordinary circumstances, movements, earthquakes …, I was the Assistant Director and he became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He had a small office at the very top of the Museum; that’s where they put him, although he hadn’t been relegated. I went up to see him on many mornings to have a chat, in spite of the fact that we’d never really spoken before. He’d been a lecturer of mine, but he was very distant. But during the year and a half he lived while I was Assistant Director, we never became friends exactly, but we achieved an excellent understanding, a reciprocal relationship. I wanted him to know what I was like, so that he might feel at peace, and I think he was. On the last day he came I said goodbye to him; he’d had a medical appointment and was feeling very tired. I accompanied him to the door because I could see how tired he was, but I never thought he was going to die. For me, death didn’t exist, and doesn’t exist now. I accompanied him to his car. This was the last time we saw each other and he told me to never lose my sense of humour. That was another of the great lessons I have learned in life. In here you must never lose your sense of humour. And I followed his advice to the letter.