Voces del Prado

Advances in the security systems

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

When I got here, the first time I worked in the night shift, the registering of entries took place in the street. It was done at different places around the Museum. There were some square points, they're probably still there, with a tab that looks like a meter. That is where we had to get the key to register our entry. You turned the key, opened the lid and registered your entry. I arrived later, but I know that entries were registered out in the street and the Museum was closed.
Around five years later they incorporated software to go with the card and things changed quite a lot then. We felt much more secure with the console. Formerly there was no console, no cameras--not a single camera, neither for going in or for coming out. We were very happy about it because we felt the Museum was under much better vigilance.
When the alarms were installed is when we experienced the security service at full blast. The alarms would go off in the warehouse areas, in the board room or up on the roof on a windy day and we had to go and check that everything was in order.
That is when we started to know the Prado, because before that there were rooms that remained closed and were not opened at night unless we had to take out a painting or store one that came in.