This is the largest effort in the Ministry’s purchasing history, aimed at enriching the collections of 26 public institutions spread throughout the country.

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Culture doubles investment in the purchase of cultural goods for public collections by 2023

Tapestry the Triumph of TimeTapestry the Triumph of Time
The Ministry of Culture has invested a total of 13,965,142.87 euros in 2023 in the acquisition of cultural goods for public collections, which represents an increase of 110% compared to 2022, when the investment was 6.62 million. This purchasing effort is a record in the historical record of purchases by the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts since 2001, to which the 2% Cultural has contributed 2,792,660.39 euros, given that these funds can be used for both conservation work and the enrichment of Spain’s cultural heritage.

During the past year, the Ministry of Culture has made purchases for 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.

In total, more than 200 acquisitions have been made for the benefit of the state’s heritage. While a percentage of these acquisitions corresponds to individual pieces, in other cases they are sets, 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 have been acquired in 2023 for the Sorolla Museum, a museum dependent on the Ministry of Culture. They are the oil on canvas ‘Street Troubadour’, the gouache and gouache on paper ‘Taking the Habit’ and the oil on canvas ‘Head of Saint Anthony’. These acquisitions have involved an investment of 531,000 euros 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 inauguration of the Royal Collections Gallery. It has acquired the Flemish tapestry ‘The Triumph of Time’, on display in the new centre, for one million euros. In total, Patrimonio Nacional has received new collections from the Ministry for more than 1,212,447.57 euros. In addition to 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
For yet another year, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) has taken in works of art by women acquired by the Ministry of Culture. Thus, at ARCO 2023, the purchase of 26 works – installation, video, painting, photography, collage… – by 18 artists, 12 of them women, including Cecilia Bengolea, Gabriela Bettini and Ana Esteve Reig, was agreed for 400,000 euros.

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

Similarly, 30 works have been purchased for the Museo Nacional del Prado, for almost 620,000 euros, such as the paintings ‘Saint Peter receiving the keys’ and ‘Baptism of Christ’, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, for 200,000 euros; the oil painting ‘The birth of Adonis’, by Pedro de Orrente, for 120,000 euros; five drawings by Vicente López and Manuel Salvador Carmona, for almost 50,000 euros; a print of ‘The king contemplates’, by Rosa Bonheur, for 48.71 euros; and a still life, by Manuel Salvador Carmona, for 48.71 euros. 000 euros; five drawings by Vicente López and Manuel Salvador Carmona, for almost 50,000 euros; the print of ‘El rey contempla’, by Rosa Bonheur, for 48.71 euros, and a still life attributed to Pedro de Camprobín for 180,000 euros.

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

For the Museo del Traje, an interesting collection of clothing from different periods has been acquired abroad, with garments designed by Pedro Rodríguez, Chanel, Dior and Galliano, and with photographs by Javier Vallhonrat, for just over 150,000 euros. This purchase is in addition to that of the archive and collection of the fashion designer Lorenzo Caprile, worth 275,000 euros, with more than 5,000 documentary collections and more than 500 pieces of clothing by Balenciaga, Valentino and Lanvin, among many others, as well as Caprile’s own work.

The National Archaeological Museum has been allocated various works, including a 15th century ceramic plate from Manises, for 50,000 euros; and 52 pieces from the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja, for 48,000 euros. Meanwhile, the Cervantes Birthplace Museum has received a set of 23 panels with scenes from Don Quixote, by Manuel García Rodríguez, for almost 29,000 euros. Also in Valladolid, the collections of the National Sculpture Museum have grown with different works worth 200,000 euros, with 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 euros; 9 drawings by Delhy Tejero, for almost 27,000 euros; and four pieces of furniture designed between 1957 and 1962 by Juan Cuenca, from Equipo 57, for an approximate amount of 50,000 euros.

For its part, the El Greco Museum has added two 17th century canvases to its collections: ‘Moses and the Water from the Rock’, by Pedro de Orrente from Murcia, and an unpublished self-portrait by Luis Tristán from Toledo, both for almost 9,800 euros.

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 assets by state museums.

In addition to the acquisitions for state museums located in Valladolid, Mérida and Toledo, the Ministry of Culture has contributed new collections to three museums that have been transferred to autonomous communities in different parts of Spain: the Museo de Bellas Artes in Valencia, with the painting ‘Carrera de Joies’ by Antonio Fillol, for a value of 25. 25,000 euros; the Museum of Gudalajara, with the painting ‘Portrait of Doña Luisa de Mendoza y Mendoza, Countess of Saldaña’ by Antonio Ricci, for 96,456 euros; and the Museum of Albacete, with an enamelled earthenware bowl from the potteries of Hellín, from the 18th century, for the sum of 3,500 euros.

Documentary and bibliographic heritage
The balance sheet highlights 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 euros (of which 5,200,000 euros have been 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 have also received new documentary collections worth 330,000 euros in 2023. Some examples are the manuscripts on the trade routes between Spain and 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 has also made purchases for the National Library of Spain worth almost 174,000 euros, such as the first edition of the book ‘Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus’ by Mary Shelley, of which no copy existed in Spanish public libraries, for 75,000 euros, and two manuscripts from the library of the Marquis of Toca dated in the 18th century, for 45,000 euros.