Voces del Prado

The Guernica Is Moved

José Luis Díez García, Head of the Department of Conservation of 19th Century Painting, 1988-2013

Before the move, when everything was being prepared and irrespective of any political issues, I remember that one night I had to stay behind at the Museum because the transport company entrusted with moving the painting was going to take some measurements. I was alone with the painting and I went behind the protective glass screens. At that instant I felt that the painting was saying to me, “it’s me, please do things properly”. The glass had to be broken, which meant the picture had to be protected first. That experience was completely unique. After the whole saga was coming to an end, when the painting was being lifted by crane between the columns of the Casón del Buen Retiro, I felt that this was a good thing for the painting, because everybody would now be able to see it in a natural manner, as I had done. This is a painting that you have to breathe in directly, without any kind of intermediation, and everybody should be able to enjoy this moving experience. You can feel your heart in your mouth when you see this painting from such close quarters, when you can smell Picasso’s brushstrokes. And, fortunately, this is something that everybody can enjoy today. But I also said to myself, “this is great, because now I’ll have space for my large history paintings when the exhibition we’re staging at the moment returns”. And that’s what happened.
What painting do you hang in the place where the Guernica was exhibited? It’s not an easy decision. After thinking about it for a while, the choice was obvious, it was natural: it had to be the Execution by Firing Squad of Torrijos, given that this painting is also an indictment of violence. It was also a picture that the Government commissioned from Antonio Gisbert in the nineteenth century for it to be hung in the Museo del Prado, in order to commemorate what occurred on that occasion, so that it might never happen again. Thus, the Execution by Firing Squad of Torrijos was hung in that very spot between 1992 and 1997, which was when the Casón del Buen Retiro was closed for refurbishment.