Voces del Prado

The Museum staff in 1991

Felipe Garín Llombart, Museum Director, 1991-1993

At the time they said of me that I was "a province lad". Perhaps not so much "a lad" but I had come from a "province" to direct the Prado. And not only in the local or domestic context, but to direct it internationally. I took office with the enthusiasm needed to do it as best as possible. It's a fact that I found and sort of looked for a team of magnificent collaborators. I kept the deputy director and I think it was a fine decision, Doctor Manuela Mena, who had been the deputy director with Alfonso and continued there. I also kept the secretary, Dolores Muruzábal, who remains at the same post. I appointed Jesús Urrea, head curator of the department of Italian painting, as assistant director. And the few curators that we had at the Museum continued doing their job.
It was also a fact that there was a shocking shortage of scientific staff, an important handicap because one would think that a Museum, aside from exhibiting its great collection of works, has an important core of people working on it. We were very short and truly needed a staff increase, which I planned to carry out, but I didn't have enough time.
I would also like to highlight the importance of the subordinate staff of the Prado Museum, our own staff for better or for worse. You experienced the difficulties of the surveillance staff as if it were a large family. On the other hand they were, they always have been, very loyal, people aware of the value of what they were watching over. In other words, the staff of the Prado have always been well aware of the importance of what they were watching over, both when the Museum was open and when it was closed.
Today there is a fashion of outsourcing services to the private sector, and in some cases it is good to do so. I can understand some services being outsourced, I wish to clarify that I do not wish to state my opinion regarding the Prado Museum, but I think there is a core within the Prado Museum that cannot be outsourced to the private sector, that is, the structural core of science and the staff managers, those need to be own staff. It has to be someone where the Museum knows who they are, because you're taking care of very important things. So outsourcing to the private sector must be done under those conditions. Otherwise I think it's very dangerous.