Voces del Prado

Unusual Cases Regarding the Prado Disperso V: The Independence of Cuba

Mercedes Orihuela Maeso, Conservator of the Service of Deposits, 1975-What's on

The pictures located in Cuba arrived during the time of Spanish colonial control and were at the Cuba Delegation in Santiago, as occurred with the works in Puerto Rico and other colonial destinations. When Puerto Rico became independent, there was time to load the paintings onto a ship and bring them back via Cádiz. But when the revolution took place in Cuba and following independence in 1898, they failed to remove the paintings from the Delegation in Santiago de Cuba and these works were appropriated by the new government, in the same way in which the Cuban Government took over the buildings and everything that recalled the period of Spanish colonial rule during the previous centuries. But they sent them to a museum in Santiago de Cuba, and that is where they reside, accompanied by a beautiful sign at the entrance that reads, “these are the paintings from Spain that were appropriated by the Cuban Government during independence”. That’s where they are, and we believe they’re all accounted for.