Voces del Prado

The Director must walk round the Museum

Francisco Calvo Serraller, Museum Director, 1993-1994

I think the Director must be inside the Museum. Each day, when I arrived at the Museum, the car left me at the Goya entrance, which meant that I had to walk through the entire building until I reached the lifts to go to the third floor where the offices were. I found this walk very interesting because I would look at everything, and that makes tours of this kind more comprehensive and more intense. I noticed things relating to the pictures that I’d never noticed before. For example, I noticed their state of preservation or how crowded a certain hall was, how the pictures were hung, whether they were properly arranged or not, etc. Suddenly, I had a more responsible perspective, and this helped me to see the Museum in a more comprehensive light, not simply as an accidental tourist. When I go into a museum now, I focus on whether the lighting is any good, whether the exhibition conditions are appropriate… In short, I focus on many things that are important for art and, unless you are faced with this experience, you probably wouldn’t notice them.