Voces del Prado

Guernica. A boost for the Casón

Ana Gutiérrez Márquez, Senior Technician of Museums (Conservation of 19th Century Painting), 1975-2018

Guernica arrived in September 1981. The arrangements to move it to Spain from New York were entirely made by the Ministry of Education. It was entirely a ministerial undertaking and the Museum was hardly responsible for anything. The only thing it did was lend the space of the Casón del Buen Retiro.
So, with the arrival of Guernica this “homely little museum” became a real museum with all its requirements: security measures, restoration studio, photography studio... The Casón changed overnight. From having almost no visitors it went to getting a tremendous avalanche. And more staff had to be employed. Above all, a lot of room warders arrived, people who are now in the Museum. From the time of the arrival of Guernica the Casón became completely incorporated into the structure of the Museo del Prado and started to function as another curatorial department even though we were in a different building.