Voces del Prado

A unique quality

Carlos Zurita Delgado. Duke of Soria, Chairman of the Friends of the Museo del Prado Foundation, 1988-Up to date

Of all the ones I know, the Friends of the Louvre, which is long-standing and very well staffed but essentially focuses on buying paintings, which our Fundación does as well to the extent that it can. We are smaller, as this is also a smaller country, but something we’ve never forgotten and which we have given great emphasis to is the educational activity that can be undertaken through fund-raising for the Museum.
Every year we offer innumerable courses, starting with a star course which is the Tuesday evening one, which was set up when the Museum was still in that initial situation of not being able to afford to invite leading specialists from around the world, wherever they might be, Australia or California, etc. This is our star course but we do endless ones. For me this is a very important undertaking as not only does it contribute funds which are of course always needed, but it’s also about making people understand what the Prado is and about enabling them through the courses to learn and really understand the centuries-old endeavour that lies behind this marvellous collection of paintings.