I Was Chosen Because of My Academic Profile

Fernando Checa Cremades, Museum Director, 1996-2001

My name is Fernando Checa and I was the Director of the Museo del Prado between 1996 and the year 2002. They chose me because of my profile as an Art Historian, Researcher and Lecturer on the History of Art at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Furthermore, I had always been interested in matters relating to the Museo del Prado. I can’t say that I didn’t hesitate a little, because I did, but not that much really. Precisely because of my academic background I’d always liked the idea, although it frightened me a little. Heading the Museo del Prado, a museum of worldwide stature, is quite an imposing prospect. What’s more, the circumstances that existed in the late 1990’s, such as the failure to resolve a number of basic problems and the climate of political conflict, especially between the two main parties regarding cultural questions and the Museo del Prado, had made it impossible to approach the matter in a calm and serene manner. The profile of my predecessors was very similar to my own: university lecturers, researchers interested in the history of art, individuals who had always been linked in some way to matters relating to the Museo del Prado. A museum is all these things for sure, but there are other things too. Even pure academics such as Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón and Alfonso Pérez Sánchez realised that, when dealing with the Museo del Prado, if you want to offer an authentic academic, artistic and aesthetic discourse at the Museum, you really have to do other things.