Voces del Prado

An Incident Resolved by Sánchez Cantón y Tormo

Carlos Manso Manso, General Operations Service Technician (Photographer), 1953-1999

Something really significant happened that I will never forget, and it happened when my father was still there. We were taking pictures of Goya’s The Third of May 1808. It’s a distressing anecdote, but no harm was done in the end. We had to set up a complicated lighting arrangement and we were using a series of metal plates that reflected the light on the painting. At some point, we must have moved one of the cables and the thing fell on the painting. The Director was Sánchez Cantón and I went to tell him what had happened. He said: “Don’t worry! If paintings are moved things like this can happen! Don’t worry!”. They removed the painting from the wall and closed the hall. It was repaired by [Manuel Pérez] Tormo, a restorer who was working at the Museum at the time. He took a morning more or less to do it and they exhibited the work again. No harm was done, but I had the scare of my life!