Voces del Prado

A Schooling in Management

José Luis Díez García, Head of the Department of Conservation of 19th Century Painting, 1988-2013

In 1997 the Casón del Buen Retiro was closed to the public because of a roof problem. And absolutely all of the paintings in the building had to come out again, so that they could be stored at the Spanish Contemporary Art Museum (MEAC). This meant moving more than 900 paintings, packing them up first, transporting them to the storerooms and then supervising them at the storage location. Those more than 900 history paintings had been brought to the Casón in 1992 and then, in 1997, they were moved again with huge trucks, although this time they were already in their frames. The Execution by Firing Squad of Torrijos [by Antonio Gisbert], for example, measured four metres by six and a half metres. We transported it along Gran Vía at night in a lorry with a police escort; the traffic was re-directed and we had to talk to Madrid City Council first. And then the rest of the other 900 paintings followed.
All of this helps you to acquire management experience and enables you to see what it means to run a museum. I believe it is essential. Some colleagues are aware of precisely what it means to work with the collections, but others, who are not directly responsible for the collections, come out with things like, “let’s change this here, let’s move that there, we can store it”. Do you know what it means to move a picture that weighs 400 kilos and you only have eight people available who really know how to move it? Because with such a large painting, when you carry it above your head it can topple over and fall. Do you really know what you’re saying? So occasions like this give you experience and know-how, so that when someone who is devoted solely to management says, “no, this is really difficult”, you can reply “no, look, you do it like this”. Because you’ve done it before and the schooling you’ve had stands you in good stead.