Voces del Prado

The Palace of Villahermosa and The Avenue of Art

Javier Solana Madariaga, Trustee of the Museo del Prado, 2019-What's on

The elections of those years, in 1982, also brought with them a cultural exploasion. The Government devoted itself a great deal to the question of culture. It was a moment of extraordinary splendour.
The Palace of Villahermosa was an issue that brought some problems with it. It was initially earmarked for the Prado and it was refurbished for the Prado, so that the Museum could stage exhibitions, etc. But at the time we were also negotiating bringing the Thyssen Collection to Spain, which was something quite extraordinary, something unthinkable, and this collection would also have to be housed somewhere. So after much discussion, agreements and disagreements – because Alfonso wanted it to continue being set aside for the Prado whilst others thought it would be an extraordinary place for the Thyssen Collection. In the end the Palace of Villahermosa was destined for the Thyssen Collection. And that was how the idea began for an Avenue of Museums that stretched from the Neptune Fountain almost all the way up to the Train Station of Atocha.
In her memoirs, Mrs. [Margaret] Thatcher has a long section devoted to the question of art. And there, over one or two paragraphs, she complains bitterly about how she let the Thyssen Collection, which was located in London, end up in Madrid. I don’t remember her exact words, but they boiled down to the question as to how those Spaniards had managed to sneak something away from me that I already had in my possession. Yes, those were marvellous years, and there was a great deal of collaboration. This is something I really must stress. I have already mentioned some names: Rodrigo Uría, Plácido Arango, Miguel Satrústegui … people who came from the private sector but who provided a great deal of help. For many, this was a unique time that managed to generate a very good climate of public-private cooperation in order to provide fundamental support for our most important museum, namely the Museo del Prado.