Voces del Prado

The Museum directors and their mark

Nuria de Miguel Poch, General Secretary of the Friends of the Museo del Prado Foundation, 1989-What's on

Of the directors who have been able to leave their mark, Francisco Calvo Serraller stands out without a doubt, because he was in our Trust and I had worked a lot with him. Afterwards, for a very short period, he was the director of the Prado Museum. I think he brought along some very modern, very advanced ideas, he was eager to modernize the Museum. Maybe he wasn't around long enough to be able to get it done.
Many of those ideas surfaced later with other directors. Especially in the period under Miguel Zugaza many of those ideas were recovered. Miguel Zugaza is another person who was essential for the Foundation and for me, first of all because he was here for 15 years, and that leaves its mark and allows many long-term projects to be conducted. I think the combination of Miguel Zugaza as director and Plácido Arango as president of the Trust was essential. Plácido, who had been on our Trust for so many years, and knowing the Foundation the way he did, saw with Zugaza an opportunity to support the Foundation, which would really contribute more to the Museum. The arrangement was signed with the Museum, many things were clarified and it was a true starting point. The international Trust was created, and we made the move of making the Foundation present at the hall of the Museum. We were challenged to reach "10,000 friends,” and we got them; “20,000,” we got them; “30,000,” and we got them. I think the two of them were so important for us.