Voces del Prado

The basis for the Museum's independence

José María Luzón Nogué, Museum Director, 1994-1996

Those were two essential documents that established future actions by the Prado Museum since then. One of them was the document on its architectural needs as a Museum. We had to call a tender, there would be adaptations, amendments where necessary, but it was a tender leading to a team of architects. Secondly, there was the matter of the Museum's role in the cultural scene of our country, for which we needed consensus. I drafted the document and Carmen Alborch took it to Parliament. It was an agreement whereby the political parties were to consider the Prado as something belonging to all. One of the things that were done was laying the foundations to separate the Museum from the fluctuations of political alternation. I think I was the second-to-last or the last Director General of the Prado Museum. I think the first one was Pérez Sánchez, who aspired for the Director of the Prado, due to his rank, to be a Director General at the Ministry, and it was done. But we didn't last long. The one I worked with the longest at the Directorate General of Fine Arts, at the Ministry, was Jorge Semprún. And I had a really good understanding with Jordi Solé Tura and was in office throughout his entire tenure. To me they were extraordinary people as ministers of Culture, hard to match in my opinion. Ministers like that are a fine model indeed.