Voces del Prado

An Incident on My First Day

Francisco Manso Guerrero, Gallery attendant and Clerical Support, 1966-1991

I turned up on my first day and they sent me to the hall with the French paintings, which was on the first floor at the end on the right. There was a large painting there, I think it was The Family of Philip V [by Louis-Michel Van Loo]. And they said, “your colleague will fill you in on what you have to do”. At that point I didn’t have a uniform. I only had a small name-tag here, with the card hanging down. And my colleague said, “they musn’t take photographs, or measure the paintings or touch them at all”. He told me all that. And after a while, two people came along with a file and I thought they would be employees at the Museum, although I didn’t know anybody. They started measuring the painting and I didn’t know what to do; it was my first day. I approached them and said, “I’m sorry, measuring the paintings is not allowed”. And they replied “Oh, we’re very sorry! It’s our fault because we didn’t say anything to you”. It turned out to be Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and Gloria [Fernández] Baytón, who were both conservators. “Please forgive us! We are to blame because we should have informed you!” That’s what happened to me on my first day working at the Museum.