I am Francisco Calvo Serraller, Professor of Art History at the Complutense University. My most direct and committed link to the Museo del Prado was the period when I headed the Museum, between autumn 1993 and spring 1994. Seven months or two hundred days. Then I resigned.
But apart from this direct connection, I had already been closely associated with the Prado, because I was a founding member of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation in 1980. This was a very strange experience, because there were no Friends Associations at Spanish museums at that time. It was a pioneering initiative. And when you pioneer something, you pay a certain price, until the thing works, obviously. So I have enjoyed forty marvelous years supporting the Prado, without the anxiety and responsibility of heading the Museum, which is very hard.
Director of the Museo del Prado from 1993 to 1994, he was a founding member and Trustee of the Board of the Friends of the Museo del Prado Foundation. Moreover, he was Professor of Art History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the curator of several exhibitions and an art critic.
Interview recorded on October 04, 2018