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A modern museum for a modern country. In the documents of the project to create the Museum, there are certain words and expressions that stand out, such as the revision of the buildings, a dignification and ennoblement, and the cleaning and restoration of the works. For the first time, and with unfettered ambition, Barcelona and the country could enjoy a museum in a remarkable building, with a restoration workshop, its own publications, research, and a unique exhibition of the great medieval, modern and contemporary collections. At the forefront of this endeavour was Joaquim Folch i Torres, art historian and museographer, who was said to have twice saved the Catalan artistic heritage. The first was through the discovery, protection and museumization of Pyrenean Romanesque art, and the second was during the Civil War, along with other professionals, when he protected the country’s heritage from the ravages of the revolutionary wave and the fascist bombings and aggressions.
The fascist uprising caused a deep crisis within the republican institutional system, which was used by the most radical social and political sectors to try to promote a revolutionary process with a strong anticlerical slant. The religious, architectural and artistic heritage, as well as many of the men and women of the Church, were the main focus of this attempt at revolution. What was left was a landscape of material destruction and violent death.
“Without the strength to impose themselves, neither the well-intentioned rulers nor the instruments of justice could prevent the turmoil and crimes of those who were euphemistically called ‘the uncontrolled’, but who were, as a whole, led by committees of the FAI*. [...] All the while, the Generalitat was trying to reduce the damage and save as much as they could of the artistic heritage. [...] The burning of the churches was deeply distressing...” (Carles Pi i Sunyer)
* Iberian Anarchist Federation
“Despite the difficulties that the rescue offered, the Museum staff (and some volunteers who had joined in) did not give up on the noble work that they had been assigned, and all without having the armed forces to protect them. […] In each of the towns there was always, during the time of greatest danger, a small nucleus of commendable citizens, friends of art, who came to prevent the destruction. The staff of the local Museum (if there was one) or those of the School of Fine Arts (where one existed), were joined by volunteers, constituting Comités, or even not constituting them, which made the revolutionaries understand the barbarity that they were going to commit.” (Joaquim Folch i Torres, 1939)
The urgent safeguarding of public and private heritage (objects and pieces of art from religious buildings and public places, private collections, some of which were well known and of high artistic value) began as soon as the fascist uprising and revolutionary wave broke out. Everything that was saved from destruction and burning was moved, in the first instance, to the Museu d’Art de Catalunya, where it was classified and organised.
The same was done with the country’s large private collections, and in particular, those in Barcelona: Cambó, Plandiura, Amatller, Güell, etc. Through decrees made by the Generalitat and the actions of the staff at the Historical, Artistic and Scientific Heritage Service (SPHAC), these collections were placed in the custody of the Generalitat.
Romanesque and Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, modern and even contemporary, altarpieces and oils, carvings and sculptures, numismatic and ceramic collections; all kinds of art were catalogued, organised and transferred in a methodical way. The works travelled through the territory and were carefully safeguarded in places which were far from the war front, and civilian and military targets of fascist aircraft. These are some of the works that were moved, and the original lists documenting the transfers.
After the revolutionary outbreak of July 1936, the Heritage Safeguarding Service (which brought together all sections of the SPHAC*) was able to save and catalogue much of the country’s artistic heritage. However, at the end of September that year, and faced with the fear of possible new disturbances, attacks, and bombings by the fascist enemy, it was decided to move the artwork out of the Museu d’Art de Catalunya. Joaquim Folch i Torres’ reasons were threefold: to move the works away from Barcelona in search of a calmer political and social environment, to remove them from urban centres that were at risk of becoming military targets for the enemy aviation and to bring them closer to the border, in case they needed to be moved to France. The ideal place was the church of Sant Esteve d’Olot, which became the first large deposit for works of art.
* Historical, Artistic and Scientific Heritage Service
The transfer of the art collections to the church of Sant Esteve d’Olot also meant the relocation of the General Commissariat of Museums to the capital of La Garrotxa. This section occupied the second floor of Casa Solà Morales, an upscale, moderniststyle building located on Passeig del Firal, in Olot. Those in charge of the Commissariat were moved there, as well as the technical team, who were in charge of the inventory, cataloguing and restoration of hundreds of works, of all styles and typologies, that would remain protected in the church of Sant Esteve.
In February 1937, preparations were made for the exhibition L’art catalan du Xème au XVème siècle, in Paris. The General Commissariat of Museums of the Generalitat de Catalunya, under the supervision of Joaquim Folch i Torres, was in charge of listing the pieces to be exhibited and organising the transfer. The first step was to consolidate all the selected artwork in the deposit of the church of Sant Esteve d’Olot, since they came from different areas of Catalonia. From there, two journeys were arranged for the trucks, loaded with artwork, which left on February 27 and March 9, 1937, for Paris.
These journeys meant that important pieces of Catalan artistic heritage could be removed from the danger of fascist bombing and safeguarded in the neighbouring country, where the French government took care of the economic costs of relocation, insurance and their storage in Paris. More than a hundred Romanesque and Gothic pieces were moved by road, with the means and resources available to the Catalan authorities.
In the spring of 1937, Paris hosted the exhibition L’art catalan du Xème au XVème siècle. It was a milestone in the history of Catalan art, as it was the first time that a representative exhibition of Catalan medieval art had been shown abroad. In the context of the Civil War, the Government of the Generalitat obtained authorisation from the Government of the Republic and the collaboration of the French authorities to move the main Romanesque and Gothic works of Catalan artistic heritage and exhibit them in Paris.
The first venue for the exhibition was the Jeu de Paume (March-April 1937), which was extended and a second, larger exhibition was held at the Château Maisons-Laffitte (June- November 1937).
The extraordinary quality of medieval art exhibited led to an international recognition of it, reaffirming the immense work carried out by the leaders of the Government of Catalonia to safeguard and preserve it.
The exhibition L’art catalan du Xème au XVème siècle, at the Jeu de Paume in Paris (March- April 1937) proved to be a success with the general public and allowed those with knowledge and interest in European medieval art to discover a highly valuable heritage, unknown on the continent until then.
The exhibition highlighted the extraordinary work done by the Generalitat to safeguard the country’s artistic heritage at the beginning of the Civil War and in the accompanying revolutionary wave. It showed the world what Joaquim Folch i Torres and other specialists were able to accomplish from the beginning of the 20th century, and culminated in the creation and opening of the Museu d’Art de Catalunya in 1934.
The impossibility of extending the exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, and the inauguration of the Paris International Exhibition – where Picasso’s Guernica and Joan Miró’s The Reaper were exhibited at the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic – meant that the exhibition of Catalan art was moved to the Château de Maisons-Laffitte, supported by the Ministry of Fine Arts of the French Republic. The spaces of the Château were adapted by Joaquim Folch i Torres and Josep Lluís Sert, the exhibition was expanded with new pieces from Olot and a new layout was planned.
The exhibition was supported by high quality specialist publications. André Dezarrois, director of the Jeu de Paume; Paul Vitry, curator of the Louvre Museum, and Christian Zervos, art critic and founder of the leading magazine Cahiers d’Art, collaborated on texts and photographs, something which had never before occurred in this artistic heritage.
As the fascist attack progressed, particularly after the breakthrough and partial fall of Lleida, those responsible for the Catalan heritage decided to create new deposits to ensure the integrity of the works, further north in Olot. The most important of these was Mas Descals, in Darnius, but they were also set up in Agullana and Bescanó, with the strictest security measures.
Mas Descals had unique conditions for preserving the artwork: solid architecture, an inconspicuous setting, far from the beaten path and away from the military targets of fascist aircraft. Guarded by officials from the Generalitat, the Francoists chose not to acknowledge the extraordinary work carried out in this and all the other deposits, both in terms of conservation, and inventories and records.
When taking stock of the “red years”, the destruction of heritage – religious heritage in particular – was one of the central arguments. The recovery of the works of art and artistic and archaeological pieces from the different deposits set up by the Generalitat became a first-rate propaganda tool.
The starting point was to deny or hide a reality – that the Catalan republican authorities had left everything ready: the secure deposits in the Mas Descals farmhouse in Darnius, in Olot, Agullana and Viladrau; the packaged, inventoried, and restored pieces, etc. The Francoists, by way of the National Artistic Heritage Defence Service (SDPAN), hid all the facts and devoted themselves exclusively to criminalising those responsible, purging the professionals involved in this safeguarding, and generating a rhetoric full of lies, halftruths and unjust accusations against the main Catalan leaders.
Until 1945, the Francoist authorities did not have reliable records of the works that had not appeared in the deposits created by the Generalitat. The point of conflict was at the Mas Descals farmhouse in Darnius, but those responsible for the inventories could not establish at what moment the works had disappeared: were they moved to France during the Republican retreat? Did they return to Barcelona, but were not handed over to their public or private owners? Did they end up on the black market?
As the management of artistic and cultural heritage was a political matter, they included the issue in the Causa General, the large investigation opened up by the State against the Second Republic, and which was later discretely brought to a close. The documents containing the records of non-returned works were archived and the Francoist authorities did not take the matter any further.
Joaquim Folch i Torres went through three repressive environments: a military war council; the removal of municipal officials (and of the entire public administration), and the effects of the so-called Law of Political Responsibilities, of February 1939.
The repressive attacks on Folch i Torres began with proceedings to remove him as a municipal official on February 21, 1939. In September 1939, he was informed of the opening of an investigation into his political undertakings, and on October 20 had to appear before a council of war. For more than four years, up until June 1944, Folch i Torres lived under the threat of various additional sentences. In the end, he was sentenced in a council of war (“twelve years and one day of incarceration”, which changed to the minimum sentence of “three years in prison”) and was removed as a municipal official, under the guise of his retirement. All this, for having actively participated in the safeguarding of Catalan art during the war and for having organised an exhibition in Paris. Triumphant Franco regime could never forgive the leading actor in saving Catalonia’s artistic heritage and the founder and first director of the Museu d’Art de Catalunya.