Voces del Prado

Changing things from within

Manuela Mena Marqués, Head of the Department of Conservation of 18th Century Painting and Goya, 1978-2019

The Museo del Prado was experiencing a period of progressive development, thanks, above all, to Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and also thanks to the Director who was there when I arrived, namely Xavier de Salas, who was followed by Pita Andrade. They realised that the Museum was stuck in the past. The Royal Board of Trustees was also revived during these years and a series of projects was set in motion, including publications, the Royal Board of Trustees and the incorporation of a number of specialised curators for the Museum’s different sections.
One of the positions that came out was for drawings and prints, which was my speciality. I went for the position in 1979, I think. And I got it, so that is when I began to work as part of the Museo del Prado, although I didn’t want to be a public servant, I didn’t want to form part of an institution of this kind. It was quite unthinkable to me, because I’d always been free and independent. I had travelled, I’d been to the United States, at American museums, although before that I’d been in Italy. I didn’t understand what it meant to be a public servant, especially when I read about what a museum curator consisted of. It said that I had to wear a uniform with white cuffs, which seemed like something from another world to me, a universe that was certainly not mine. So I never wanted to enter the world of public administration. It was Don Diego Angulo, who had been a university professor and a lecturer of mine, and who served as the Museum Director, who said to me: “If you want to change something, you have to change it from the inside, which is why you have to go for this official post. What does it matter to you? It doesn’t mean anything; it’s just to get into the Museo del Prado.” I felt that he might be right. So I went for the position.