[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1236084309.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tMore than 200 artists and art professionals in Mexico signed an open letter last week accusing the government of committing an \u201cinstitutional blunder\u201d after it allowed a newly resurfaced art collection to travel to Spain.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat collection comprises around 300 works that formerly belonged to Jacques and Natasha Gelman. Among those works are a range of treasures: some 18 pieces by Frida Kahlo, in addition to paintings by Diego Rivera, Jos\u00e9 Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and other giants of modern Mexican art history.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to an El Pa\u00eds<\/em> report from earlier this year, 160 of the works resurfaced in the collection of the Madrid-based Banco Santander. The report arrived less than a year and a half after another El Pa\u00eds<\/em> report in which the Mexican government claimed it didn\u2019t know where some of the Gelman collection was.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Santander Foundation is now set to house the works in Spain, even though they are classified as artistic monuments in Mexico, a status that only allows them to be exported for one to two years. Daniel Vega P\u00e9rez de Arlucea, director of a new Santander-run foundation called Faro Santander opening in June, previously stated that Mexico \u201cwill comply with customs obligations and our responsibilities.\u201d But the open letter released last week alleged that INBAL had failed to do just this.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNo one doubts that the change of ownership is a matter that strictly concerns private individuals; however, the fate of the work protected by these decrees \u2013 and for which the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature is called upon to take measures to ensure its conservation and custody \u2013 concerns us all,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong the signatories are Cuauht\u00e9moc Medina, one of Mexico\u2019s leading curators; Magali Arriola, formerly the director of Mexico City\u2019s Museo Tamayo; and Teresa Margolles, a preeminent Mexican artist who won a special mention from the jury at the 2019 Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n \n\tVega P\u00e9rez had previously stated that the exportation licenses \u201ccan be extended by the decision of INBAL.\u201d But, the letter said, \u201cWe do not believe that the laws of this country are flexible, much less that they can be modified at will, and without making public the reasons for such flexibility, which, it should be said, has not been granted to other collectors, who might wish to enjoy the same privilege that has been extended to Banco Santander.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMoreover, the letter accused INBAL of being \u201copaque\u201d when it came to the collection and claimed that the organization had \u201cfailed to fulfill its mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn February, INBAL made a statement about the Gelman collection, noting that it had not attempted to acquire the cache of artworks because \u201cit is truly an\u00a0extremely expensive collection\u00a0and\u00a0public resources\u00a0would not necessarily be sufficient for an acquisition of this magnitude,\u201d according to the organization\u2019s head, Alejandra de la Paz. Some of the collection is now on view at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.<\/p>\n \n\tThe collection was formed in the 20th century after Jacques Gelman fled Europe for Mexico in 1938. Three years later, he married Natasha Zahalka Krawak, who was born in Czechoslovakia. They amassed a rich collection of Mexican art and hosted it in their home; their bedroom even featured five paintings by Kahlo. Jacques died in 1986, and Natash followed in 1998.<\/p>\n \n\tThey also collected European modernist art, with many of the works from that area of art history heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art following Natasha\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Mexican part of their collection is of high importance. A 2024 El Pa\u00eds<\/em> report quoted art market expert Alberto Bremermann as saying, \u201cBeyond its economic value, the Gelman collection is an important representation of Mexico\u2019s artistic identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/gelman-collection-santander-mexico-controversy-frida-kahlo-1234777507\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1236084309.jpg?w=1024″] More than 200 artists and art professionals in Mexico signed an open letter last week accusing the government of committing an \u201cinstitutional blunder\u201d after it allowed a newly resurfaced art collection to travel to Spain. That collection comprises around 300 works that formerly belonged to Jacques and Natasha Gelman. Among those works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1830023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1830023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1830023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1830023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1830023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}