Voces del Prado

1996. The ups and downs of improvising. “Goya. 250th anniversary”

Juan Luna Fernández, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting, 1969-2016

Sometimes there’s improvisation. At other times no, as we’ve got excellent teams. Not just really well qualified people but really hard working as well as very positive ones. This is what I’ve always found at the Museo del Prado. I’ve rarely encountered negative people at the Prado, there are are few but in general everyone’s positive.
An example of improvisation was the organisation, creation, installation and inauguration of the exhibition “Goya” [1996]. As I’d written things on Goya, given lectures and above all organised that exhibition for a private organisation in my free time they suddenly woke up and entrusted me with the exhibition, which was opened by the King and Queen of Spain on 30 March 1996. I got together 170 paintings, of which a considerable number were from the Prado and another interesting and unique part that completed the Prado’s collections came from all over the world. That was a complex exhibition as the paintings arrived right up to the last moment. There were also annoying things, of course there were annoying things... I’m not going to say which museum I’m referring to but there was one that lent a certain work in order for it to be included in the catalogue. So, they sent the photo, it was included in the catalogue and then, when the work had to be sent to the exhibition, they said no. But the work was already included in the catalogue and would be considered for all time to have been in Madrid. An American museum did that to me and a Spanish collector.
So, it was a really lovely exhibition which was extremely successful and which, in the just over two months that it was open, particularly as it had been done in quite a hurry, had around 333,000 visitors. I haven’t forgotten it. So, in comparative terms it was one of the most visited exhibitions in the history of the Prado.