Voces del Prado

Large works didn't fit

Inmaculada Echeverría Elvira, Head of the Technical Office, 1981-Up to date

My name is Inmaculada Echeverría and I arrived at the Museum in late 1980. I knew Carmen Garrido because she was a friend and classmate of my sister. They studied at the Colegio de la Asunción, in Madrid. She told me, “Listen, Inma, I'm at the Prado and they've given us a grant to study El Greco. Would you like to join us?”, and there I went.
The Museum I found was in some ways something small, a family affair. The first place we started at was a very small room, near the medical service. The ceiling was way too low. I'm a short person and there wasn't much space over my head. I remember we were working on a picture, I think it was by Fernando Gallego, this was the late 80s, and the frame barely fit in. We had the X-ray equipment, the first X-ray device which we still keep in the building at Los Jerónimos, and a small device for analysing pigments that we had bought with a grant.
It was a very small enclosure. At the back there was a small warehouse, and an area framed by an arch doorway, so we couldn't take large works there because they didn't fit. That space was free so we went in there with all our technical devices. We disturbed nobody, we did our work, and they let us be. That was the first place we were located.