Voces del Prado

The appointment of Alfonso Pérez Sánchez as Museum Director

Javier Solana Madariaga, Trustee of the Museo del Prado, 2019-What's on

When we assumed the reins of government, there was already a desire for change at the Museum itself. The most important change introduced during my first days of office was the appointment of Alfonso Pérez Sánchez as the Director of the Prado. He had served as Assistant Director and he was an extremely distinguished lecturer, although he’d never been appointed as head of the Prado. During the first few days after accepting my government post, I set myself the goal of appointing him. I appointed him in 1983 and he remained there until 1991. He did a great job as Director. We all have to acknowledge that. This appointment was one of the most difficult things I had to do, because the Director of the Prado at the time was a figure of some quality from the realm of Spanish cultural life, but not a cultural or art historian; rather he was a music-lover. And he couldn’t understand why I took the Prado away from him. But what was truly absurd was that Alfonso Pérez Sánchez wasn’t serving as the Director of the Prado and that somebody might think that he wasn’t the head for reasons linked to his capacity. He was an enormously capable man. This new appointment also gave a new impetus to the Prado.