[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2236153455-e1775659160744.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the Basque regional government made a formal request last week to Spain\u2018s Ministry of Culture to authorize a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso\u2018s Guernica<\/em> (1937), the region\u2019s head of government, Lehendakari Imanol Pradales, said he expected more robust discussion on the issue after Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to El Pa\u00eds<\/em>, that discussion came on Tuesday\u2014and the culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, was unequivocal. During a government oversight session in Spain\u2019s Senate, Urtasun told senator Igotz L\u00f3pez, of the Basque National Party, that he would not approve the transfer request.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI understand the sensitivity behind this request,\u201d Urtasun said. \u201cWe are talking about a work linked to the memory of Gernika and the pain it symbolizes. My obligation is to guarantee access to culture and also to safeguard our heritage. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tL\u00f3pez was not taking Urtasun\u2019s answer as the final word. He reiterated that the Basque government is already familiar with the Reina Sof\u00eda\u2019s condition report\u2014which deems the painting too fragile to travel\u2014and that it is instead requesting a feasibility report from independent technicians on how a transfer to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao could be carried out safely. He also challenged Urtasun\u2019s assertion that the Reina Sof\u00eda could not survive without the painting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf their survival depends on exhibiting Guernica<\/em>, they have a problem. The Reina Sof\u00eda could be valued for more than just Guernica<\/em>,\u201d L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Basque government has continued to say that it is awaiting a \u201cformal response\u201d from Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez, apparently declining to treat Urtasun\u2019s Senate remarks as such.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the government of Catalonia\u2014like Basque Country, an autonomous region of Spain\u2014endorsed the transfer, calling it \u201cnot only culturally sound but a democratic duty.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Basque government\u2019s request for Guernica<\/em> is far from its first. The government has made similar appeals several times over the years, including for the opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao in 1997. Barcelona also requested a transfer in 1992. None have been successful.<\/p>\n \n\tPainted in Paris over five or six weeks, the monumental canvas measures 11 feet 5 inches by 25 feet 6 inches. It was first shown at the 1937 World\u2019s Fair before touring Europe and the United States. In 1939, it was on long-term view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with Picasso stipulating that it should not return to Spain until democracy was restored. After the Franco dictatorship ended in 1975, MoMA transferred the painting to Spain in 1981. It first went to the Prado and then, in 1992, to the newly oepned Reina Sof\u00eda, where it has remained ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/guernica-transfer-rejected-basque-government-spain-culture-minister-1234780472\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2236153455-e1775659160744.jpg?w=1024″] When the Basque regional government made a formal request last week to Spain\u2018s Ministry of Culture to authorize a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso\u2018s Guernica (1937), the region\u2019s head of government, Lehendakari Imanol Pradales, said he expected more robust discussion on the issue after Easter Sunday. According to El Pa\u00eds, that discussion […]<\/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-1875430","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\/1875430","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=1875430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1875430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1875430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1875430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}