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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Guy Lane

‘We thought it was erotic postcards’: Madrid museum exhibits 1920s couple’s intimate photos

A man posing in makeup and lingerie.
The husband posing in makeup and lingerie. Photograph: National Museum of Decorative Arts, Madrid

It was only by chance that the artist-curator David Trullo was working on a temporary installation at Madrid’s National Museum of Decorative Arts on the day in 2017 that a sealed case, unopened for 80 years, arrived from the ministry of finance. With no means of tracing the original owner or their family, it had lain in a bureaucratic and financial limbo until sufficient time had passed for its opening to be legally permissible.

The contents of this inadvertent and startling time capsule are now the subject of an exhibition, Álbum de Salón y Alcoba (The Bedroom and Dressing Room Album) installed by Trullo at the museum as part of Photoespaña, the city’s annual celebration of photography.

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