Restoration of Las Meninas in 1984: a question of state

Javier Solana Madariaga, Trustee of the Museo del Prado, 2019-Up to date

Las Meninas, everybody knew, needed to be cleaned. But nobody would take the decision as to how to go about it. Nobody dared to really touch Las Meninas. I recall that one day, telling the Prime Minister that we were going to do it, he said: “Javier, governments can fall for many reasons. If we don’t restore Las Meninas well, then that’ll be it for us. Do what you have to do, but do it with the confidence that it’s going to turn out well”. It was with this sense of responsibility that we embarked on the cleaning of Las Meninas.
During my period of office as Minister, the Museo del Prado established a very close relationship with the Metropolitan Museum in New York. There was a person there who was the leading restorer in the world (He wasn’t American. He worked at the Metropolitan, but he was English). Whatever the case, we considered the idea that this specialist, Bridley, might be prepared to restore Las Meninas. There were some people at the Prado who said that this was something that couldn’t be carried out by a foreigner, that it had to be carried out by a Spaniard. But I said that if we were going to do it, and it was going to be done when I was Minister, it would be carried out by the best person available who could do it. I wasn’t that concerned about the nationality. I was interested in the person’s ability to do it well. There was little doubt that Bridley was the best person available. He was a marvellous man who could work all hours of the day and night and he was still sitting there in perfect concentration … it was really quite a show. When he was about to complete the job, I went to see him and asked him when he thought the picture would be ready for exhibition. He replied that he’d hand it over in a few days’ time.
For my own peace of mind, I searched for some living soul who had seen Las Meninas before the Civil War. I found two people. One was Rafael Alberti and the other was Buero Vallejo. I called them and said: “Look, the restoration is about to be completed and I’d like you to give me your impression of how it’s turned out”. So they came to see it. They entered the room on their own and the impact was quite extraordinary. Alberti said to me: “This is what Las Meninas should be. This is what I saw. That blue, that red … it was all smudged”. And Buero Vallejo said the same. Both were excited and said: “These are Las Meninas!”. So I was reassured and very happy and we set to work to see how we could exhibit the picture. An exhibition of the restored Las Meninas. It was a great success. Truly a great success. Bridley, the restorer, practically stayed to live in Spain. He left a whole legacy behind him. It was an extraordinary experience and I believe that a very good relationship with the Metropolitan has remained, one that has been maintained with the museum’s different directors.