Spain’s culture ministry has begun to fulfil its promise to return more than 5,000 works of art that were taken by the Franco regime after restoring a painting seized by the dictatorship 84 years ago to its rightful owners.
In June, the ministry published an online list of more than 5,126 items plundered by the regime – including paintings, sculptures, jewellery, furniture and religious ornaments – to help people reclaim their family property almost a century after it was taken for safekeeping after the outbreak of the civil war.
Most of the pieces on the list were originally gathered and put into protective storage by the Republican government after Franco’s military coup in July 1936 triggered the Spanish civil war. But when the war ended with Franco’s victory in April 1939, many of the pieces were seized and scattered among different museums, collections and institutions.
Earlier this week, the first of the looted works was finally returned to its owners during a ceremony at the National Library of Spain. The piece – a painting of the Spanish educator and philosopher Francisco Giner de los Ríos as a boy – was confiscated in 1940 when the dictatorship outlawed the pioneering and influential Free Institution of Education that Giner de los Ríos had co-founded. It was then stored in the national library.
On Thursday, the culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, formally restored the painting to the foundation, which exists to safeguard the legacy of the Free Institution of Education.
“The return of items that were seized under Francoism – such as the portrait of Giner de los Ríos that we have today given back to its true owner, the Free Institution of Education – is not just a legal obligation,” said Urtasun. “It is an act of reparation that holds deep meaning for the culture ministry … and [shows] our commitment to the memories of all the victims of the Franco dictatorship in our country.”
José García-Velasco García, the president of the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation, described the painting’s return as “the proof that dreams come true and that some fights can be won”.
Urtasun has said the publication of the list is about education and restitution as well as fulfilling his department’s obligations to the 2022 Democratic Memory law, which is intended to bring justice to Franco-era victims.
“We’re offering a space in which people can learn about our history,” he said in June. “We’re also opening the door to returning those pieces that can be identified to their rightful owners.”
Applications for the return of the lost items are being considered by the ministry on a case-by-case basis.
