Culture doubled investment in the purchase of cultural goods for public collections in 2023, at 14 million euros

Flemish tapestry 'The Triumph of Time

In 2023, the ministry invested a total of €13,965,142.87 in the acquisition of cultural goods for public collections, an increase of 110% compared to 2022, when the investment was €6.62 million. This is a record in terms of purchases by the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts since 2001, to which the 2% Cultural contributed €2,792,660.39, given that these funds can be used for both conservation work and for the enrichment of Spain's cultural heritage.

During last year, the Ministry of Culture made purchases on behalf of 26 public cultural institutions: thirteen state museums under direct management, three museums under management transferred to the Autonomous Communities, four state archives, the National Library of Spain, the Prado National Museum, the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre, National Heritage, the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the Army Museum.

A total of more than 200 purchase operations were carried out for the benefit of the state's assets. While some of these acquisitions are individual pieces, in other cases they are ensembles, archives and collections with dozens or hundreds of items such as paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture, clothing, ceramics and photograph albums, as well as documentary and bibliographic collections and contemporary art installations.

Sorolla Centenary and Royal Collections

Continuing with the effort to enrich the painter's public collections, on the occasion of the centenary of Joaquín Sorolla's death, three more works by the painter were acquired in 2023 for the Sorolla Museum, which is dependent on the Ministry of Culture. They are the oil on canvas 'Street Troubadour', the wash and gouache on paper 'Taking the Habit', and the oil on canvas 'Head of Saint Anthony'. These acquisitions represent an investment of €531,000, and are in addition to the six works by Sorolla purchased in 2022 for almost half a million euros.

The Ministry of Culture has also contributed to the opening of the Royal Collections Gallery. It acquired for one million euros the Flemish tapestry 'The Triumph of Time, on display in the new centre. Patrimonio Nacional received new collections from the ministry to the total value of over €1,212,447.57. Aside from the tapestry, the 'Sketch with Christ Crowning a Nun' by Corrado Giaquinto, and a set of baptismal ewers made in gilded silver by Crossville and Glachant stand out.

Support for Spanish contemporary and female creation

Again this year, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) took in works of art by women acquired by the Ministry of Culture. In this regard, in ARCO 2023 the purchase of 26 works- among them installations, videos, paintings, photography and collages- by 18 artists, 12 of them women, including Cecilia Bengolea, Gabriela Bettini and Ana Esteve Reig, was agreed for €400,000.

Overall, thanks to the Ministry of Culture, the MNCARS collections registered new income of almost €1,200,000 in 2023. Among the new pieces are the portraits 'Antonio and Carmen' and 'Sinforoso and Josefa', both by Antonio López, for €350,000; and a work by the American Allan McCollum, for €69,000.

Meanwhile, a total of 30 works were purchased for the Prado Museum for almost €620,000, including the paintings 'Saint Peter receiving the keys' and 'Baptism of Christ' by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, for €200,000; the oil painting 'The birth of Adonis' by Pedro de Orrente, for €120,000; five drawings by Vicente López and Manuel Salvador Carmona, for almost €50,000; the print of 'The king contemplates' by Rosa Bonheur, for €48.71, and a still life attributed to Pedro de Camprobín for €180,000.

State museums

As for the collections of the State Museums managed by the Ministry of Culture, in 2023 they incorporated such important pieces as 'La Piedad' by Francisco de Goya, at a cost of €1.5 million, for the Museo Nacional del Romanticismo. In total, this museum brought in new works worth a total of €2 million in 2023. Of the other pieces acquired for this centre, an equestrian portrait of Pedro Ayegui Torralba by Rafael Tegeo, for €186,300, and a portrait of a female painter by Antonio Poza y Muñoz, for €3,629, stand out.

For the Museo del Traje, an interesting collection of clothing from different periods, including garments designed by Pedro Rodríguez, Chanel, Dior and Galliano, and photographs by Javier Vallhonrat were acquired abroad for just over €150,000. This purchase was in addition to that of the archive and collection of the couturier Lorenzo Caprile, amounting to €75,000 and including over 5,000 documentary collections and over 500 pieces of clothing by Balenciaga, Valentino and Lanvin, among many others, in addition to Caprile's own work.

The National Archaeological Museum was allocated various works, including a 15th century Manises ceramic plate, for €50,000; and 52 pieces from the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja, for €48,000. For its part, the Cervantes Birthplace Museum received a set of 23 panels with scenes from 'Don Quixote', by Manuel García Rodríguez, for almost €29,000. Also in Valladolid, the collections of the National Sculpture Museum were added to with different works worth €200,000, including pieces such as a sculpture of Santiago Matamoros by José Ginés.

Also significant are the purchases destined for the National Museum of Decorative Arts, of a set of 37 pieces of Spanish design, ceramics and porcelain from the 20th century, for almost €75,000; 9 drawings by Delhy Tejero, for almost €27,000; and four pieces of furniture designed between 1957 and 1962 by Juan Cuenca of Equipo 57, for an approximate amount of €50,000.

For its part, the El Greco Museum added two 17th-century canvases to its collections: Moisés y el agua de la roca', by Pedro de Orrente from Murcia, and an unpublished self-portrait by Luis Tristán from Toledo, both for almost €9,800.

Many of these new works are already on public tours or will be in the near future. A current example of this dissemination policy is the exhibition 'Sumando Historias. 10 years of acquisitions', open at the Museo de América until April, which explains the steps followed for the acquisition of new cultural property by state museums.

In addition to the acquisitions for State Museums located in Valladolid, Mérida and Toledo, the Ministry of Culture contributed new collections to three museums under the management transferred to the Autonomous Communities in different parts of Spain: the Valencia Fine Arts Museum, with the painting 'Carrera de Joies' by Antonio Fillol, for €25,000; the Gudalajara Museum, with the painting 'Portrait of Doña Luisa de Mendoza y Mendoza, Countess of Saldaña' by Antonio Ricci, for €96,456; and the Albacete Museum, with an enamelled earthenware bowl from the Hellín potteries, from the 18th century, for the sum of €3,500.

Documentary and bibliographic heritage

Another highlight of the balance sheet is the purchase of the Archive of the Counts of Güemes and Revilla-Gigedo for the Historical Archive of the Nobility, for a total price of €6,344,750 (of which €5,200,000 were paid from the 2023 budget). This is one of the most important private noble archives in Spain, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2008, with fundamental documents for the knowledge of the history of the Modern Age in Spain and America.

The Archivo General de Indias, the Archivo Histórico Nacional and the Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica also received new documentary collections worth €330,000 in 2023. Some examples are the manuscripts on the trade routes between Spain and the Río de la Plata, the writ of the Holy Office dated in Granada in 1626, and the batch of more than 80 photographs by the Catalan Antoni Campañà (1906-1989).

The Ministry of Culture also made purchases for the National Library of Spain worth almost €174,000, including the first edition of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus', of which there was no copy in Spanish public libraries, for €75,000, and two manuscripts from the library of the Marquis of Toca dating from the 18th century, for €45,000.

Non official translation