Voces del Prado

The central gallery. A high point

Pedro Álvarez Moreno, Head of the Area of Works and Maintenance, 1994-2009

The central gallery is such a marvellous space there’s no denying it. Furthermore, just about everything’s happened there. In the past the art movers used to hang the painting with nails and huge hooks. There were often debates about this as before they were painted the walls used to be lined with a layer of fibreglass to prevent small cracks etc. And when we took a painting down and took out the hooks there were bulges like mosquito bites, like bumps. There were real problems as it wasn’t just one or two paintings that got taken down; they took down and re-hung lots of paintings. So the result was a wall with the paintings and bumps next to them. It was ridiculous, it was a real problem. I said: “Please, don’t use hooks for hanging, use rawl plugs or something that doesn’t ruin my walls.” As it looked really bad. And painting the central gallery was quite a thing, due to the size and cost of it. It had its funny side. The central gallery’s a high point.