The Spanish culture ministry has refused a request to loan Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica (1937) to an exhibition planned at Guggenheim Bilbao later this year. The epic painting, which depicts the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, is housed at the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid.
The Basque government, led by Imanol Pradales of the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV), asked that the famed painting be shown at the Guggenheim outpost in northern Spain from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2027.
The proposed exhibition would mark the 90th anniversary of the constitution of the first Basque government and the 1937 bombing of the town, known as Gernika in Basque, located 30 kilometres northeast of Bilbao. The Basque government previously requested the transfer of Guernica in 1997 when the Guggenheim Bilbao opened.
On 7 April, Spain’s Ernest Urtasun, minister of culture, told the Spanish parliament: “In matters like this, we must listen to the experts who have been preserving the work for 30 years. Their reports are clear and advise against moving the piece due to the risks involved. Celebrating the 90th anniversary of Gernika should also mean ensuring that this work can last another 90 years. My obligation is to preserve this heritage.” A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed the statement.
The Spanish ministry of culture requested a conservation report from officials at the Reina Sofía museum, which states that moving the work could cause “new cracks, lifting, and loss of the paint layer, as well as tears.”
The report, obtained by The Art Newspaper, says that “in certain dark areas of the painting, extensive networks of micro-cracks are also visible, affecting large sections of the work… Another example of losses is found at the top edge of the canvas, where [paint] losses reveal the white ground layer beneath.”
Pradales has since warned however that “it would be a serious political mistake to close the door on this issue”, referring to his party’s backing for prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s ruling socialist party as part of a coalition arrangement. Pradales was contacted for comment.
The government of the Spanish Republic acquired Guernica from Picasso in 1937. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, however, the artist decided that the painting should remain in the custody of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for safekeeping until the conflict ended.
The work toured the US throughout the 1940s and then headed for Brazil, travelling there from 1953 to 1956. The work returned to MoMA in 1957 and remained there for 24 years. It was handed over to Spain in September 1981 and went on display at the Prado Museum after democracy was restored to the country. It was transferred to the Reina Sofía museum in 1992.
