Voces del Prado

A difficult time among the workers

Antonio Macías Pizarro, Head of Night Surveillance, 1974-2009

Every now and then we'd get a scare or two. There were many people working at the Museum. There was a time of labour disputes and that always causes problems and so. I remember once when I handed over the Museum with Pedro Sobrino, may his soul rest in peace. All the paintings were in their places in the morning before I left. But in the afternoon there was one small painting missing. We got the shivers! It was a day when the Museum closed, most likely a Monday, the day it closed, and that's when it was done. We had to go and declare. The painting showed up later. It couldn't have been taken out because nothing left the Museum without being reviewed. Everything was checked. It was very hard for something like that to happen. We didn't understand what could have happened. It showed up wrapped in some towels in a restroom. That caused a fracture in the labor understanding at the time.
There was some discontent going around over a number of things. Discontent is present at any job. It's extremely hard to keep everyone happy, that is so difficult. In those days it could have been anybody. Who did it? We could make a guess, but I'm not saying anything because there were just three or four of us in that day. I certainly didn't take it. And it wasn't smuggled out, but somebody hid the picture.