Voces del Prado

The Directors and the Museum Staff

Juan Manuel Gómez Agredano, Service Technician for Electricity and Air Conditioning (Electrician), 1972-What's on

I joined under Xavier de Salas in 1972. He arrived in 1971 and was there for eight years. And I stayed on until ten Directors had come and gone. Xavier de Salas was the first Director I met and he was a man who was truly devoted to art, although he didn’t really involve himself in staff matters. Then came Pita Andrade, who was a Director who really wanted to do something, but the country was in financial straits and so he couldn’t do that much. After Pita Andrade came Federico Sopeña, who had a hand in changing the Functions Room. As a musician, he tended to promote the idea that the Museum and its Functions Room should serve as a music auditorium, rather than a conference room. That’s why it had to be adapted later on, because the reverberations that existed in the Functions Room meant that the speakers’ words were largely lost during conferences, which was a real problem. The Functions Room was refurbished in order to adapt it as a conference room, rather than a concert hall. Then came Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, who wasn’t a bad Director for us. He worked with the staff, but politics is very often to blame, and he was removed for political reasons. If that hadn’t happened, he probably would have stayed longer. Then other figures came who lasted a very short time in the post; they really weren’t there very long and I don’t remember them having any contact with the staff. Until Miguel Zugaza arrived, who I believe, as I’ve said before, was the best Director who has passed through the Museo del Prado, both for the museum itself and for the staff.