Voces del Prado

1983-1991. Alfonso Pérez Sánchez

Manuela Mena Marqués, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting and Goya, 1978-2019

He really was the man we all thought he would be, both outside and inside the Museo del Prado. He had to be the Director of the Museo del Prado because of his ability, because of his writings, because of his books, because of his know-how, and because of his knowledge of the Prado. They said he’d entered the Prado as “a boy in every sense,” like those youngsters who join a bank as a bellboy and end up becoming the Manager. Well that’s what happened with Pérez Sánchez, who also held a number of pre-war ideas. His mother had been a teacher during the Republic, which meant that she’d been laid off after the war; you could say that this also influenced his personality and made him see things differently. He’d travelled all over the world and all of the museum directors and historians abroad knew him. He was like that.
His time at the Museo del Prado was characterised by the incredible idea of endowing the Museum with its own independence, granting it administrative independence. He achieved the first Statute of Independence of the Museo del Prado, which was later improved upon. He managed to achieve this with his determination and the understanding of certain ministers of the period. And he was capable of leaving the Museum because of his political ideas. He was perfectly aware that what he was saying in those declarations of a political nature could well entail his dismissal as Director. It was a very difficult decision for him to speak out, but he took the decision in front of me. I also signed the letter, although my signature wasn’t enough for me to be sacked just like that; they tried, but it wouldn’t have been legal. But in his case it was legal and they removed him.
He was very special. He was enormously intelligent and had an especially dynamic sense about him, but he also possessed a Germanic seriousness, according to that typically Germanic idea we have. And for me it was extremely important to come into contact with someone like that.