19/02/2026
28/06/2026
Curator:
Gemma Domènech i Casadevall (ICRPC-CERCA/UdG) and Eduard Caballé i Colom (ICRPC-CERCA).
Curated by the Museum: Eduard Vallès, Head of Collections at the MNAC.
Location:
Rooms 63–64
1SAFEKEEPING THE HERITAGE: THE MUSEUM AS REPUBLICAN REPOSITORY
On 21 July 1936, just three days after the coup, the Government of the Generalitat decreed the confiscation of the country's religious buildings to protect them from fires and looting. In the days that followed, several decrees placed Catalonia's artistic, historical and documentary heritage under the guardianship of the Departament de Culture (Department of Culture). A network of local committees and storage facilities was created to ensure the works’ safety and their storage in suitable locations. It is in this context that the Museum became one of the main centres for the reception and safekeeping of these collections.
The Museum’s technicians checked and recorded each piece with methodical and rigorous work, noting their provenance, description and state of conservation. This work was meant to ensure the traceability of the works and facilitate their subsequent return to their owners or institutions of origin.
The removal of the collections
As fighting intensified and the fascists’ bombings increased over Barcelona, numerous works of art had to be evacuated to various locations within Spain and abroad to ensure their safety. The first major operation was the transfer of the Museum’s collections to the church of Sant Esteve in Olot. At the same time, preparations were under way for the exhibition Art catalan du xe au xve siècle in Paris. This facilitated the safekeeping of parts of this heritage and its international circulation. Shortly afterwards, new storage facilities were set up in Bescanó, Darnius and Agullana. Dispersing the works in this manner helped diminish risks, and prepare for a possible evacuation to France.
2SERVICIO DE DEFENSA DEL PATRIMONIO ARTÍSTICO NACIONAL (SDPAN)
On 23 April 1938, Franco's first government instituted the Servicio de Defensa del Patrimonio Artístico Nacional (SDPAN) (National Artistic Heritage Defence Service), with the aim of locating and gaining control of the heritage found in territories seized by the army. This service was organised into military zones, with Catalonia falling under the jurisdiction of the Comisaría de la Zona de Levante (Levante Zone Precinct). This unit was responsible for the execution of the project to occupy and control all Republican monuments, museums and deposits in Catalan territory and, ultimately, for the management of the works that fell under the custody of Franco’s regime during the war.
Comisaría de la Zona de Levante was integrated by approximately fifty members, mainly from Catalonia and Aragon. Most of them were professionals linked to the world of heritage who were militarised and incorporated as SDPAN agents. In addition to locating, cataloguing and safeguarding the works stored in various depots throughout the territory, these agents played a key institutional role in consolidating Franco's narrative about heritage, helping to legitimize the regime through its control and reorganisation.
OCCUPATION OF CATALONIA
The SDPAN planned the occupation of Catalonia from Aragon. After the fall of Lleida (April 1938), it settled in the city and started inventorying and taking control of cultural property. After the Battle of the Ebro, these actions spread to the rest of the territory, especially to Barcelona, where an «Occupation Plan» was implemented. After consolidating military and administrative control, SDPAN teams occupied the Republican warehouses near the French border, whence they oversaw the transfer of works evacuated during the war.
After February 1939, when the war ended in Catalonia, the SDPAN organised the transfer to Barcelona of all heritage assets previously protected by the Republic and stored in various warehouses. The stated objective was to organize their return, but this process proved a lengthy and irregular process. Between 18 February 1939 and 23 February 1940, these assets were distributed among five main storage facilities: Depósito del Palacio Nacional, Depósito del Monasterio de Pedralbes, Depósito de la Calle de la Paja, Depósito del Palacio de Solferino and Depósito de la Caja de Pensiones.
THE DISPERSAL OF THE DEPOSITS
Thanks to supporting documentation elaborated by the Republican safekeeping services, in most cases it was possible to identify the ownership and origin of these stored assets. When all transfers were completed, the SDPAN began the process of restitution. To help establish ownership, exhibitions were organised in several municipalities, particularly in Barcelona, where potential owners could recognise their works and claim them. Despite this, reimbursement was subject to a restrictive set of regulations, whereby it was necessary to submit a formal application, prove ownership, and demonstrate loyalty to the regime.
From this process were excluded exiles as well as persons persecuted or killed during the war and post-war period. This made it impossible to claim numerous works. Those that remained unclaimed were temporarily transferred in museums and other public or private institutions, in accordance with regulations emanating from the regime’s authorities.
3
Between 1939 and 1958, the Museum received, in the current state of the investigation, 135 works on loan from the SDPAN, grouped into at least nine stashes. These pieces had very diverse origins: they originated in public institutions, the Church and private collectors in Catalonia, but were also included works that had been exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1937) and at exhibitions organised by the Dirección General de Bellas Artes (Directorate-General for Fine Arts) (1937-1938). Their entry into the Museum is accredited by administrative records from the Junta de Museos de Barcelona (Barcelona Museum Board) and deposit agreements drawn up by the SDPAN.
The task of retracing this work's journey during the war and post-war years is facilitated by the labels on the verso. Claudia’s girls was confiscated by the Junta del Tesoro Artístico (Artistic Treasury Board) of the Spanish Republic and sent to the Departamento Especial de Información del Estado (Special State Information Department), which suggests that its origin was Madrid. Later, probably due to the relocation of the Republican government, it arrived in Barcelona. After the fall of the city, the SDPAN took charge of it, as indicated by the label «Recovered from the enemy», and this work passed through the Pedralbes and Caja de Pensiones warehouses. Because it was never claimed, it remained in storage at the Museum.
DIDACTIC LABEL STASH 1940
In 1940, the Museu d’Art de Catalunya registered the entry of eight works. Four came from the Museo del Pueblo (People's Museum), a travelling or mobile museum linked to a cultural programme of «Misiones Pedagógicas»(Educational Missions), instituted by the government of the Second Republic to bring art and knowledge to rural communities far from cultural centres.
4RESTITUTIONS
The role played by the Museum as an emergency storage facility, first in the context of the Republican Generalitat and later under the control of the SDPAN, turned this institution into a space for the reception and safekeeping of works at an exceptional moment in history. This process has contributed to the complexity of a collection consisting of pieces from diverse origins which in some cases are difficult to trace. Starting in the 1990s, a new institutional and legal context launched the process of reviewing and returning the works deposited by the SDPAN. To date, 19 of these pieces have been returned to their rightful owners.
Based on documentary research and collaboration between institutions, this task complies with the Museum’s commitment to transparency, memory and a responsibl management of the artistic heritage.
sdpan_mnac.jpg [1]
‘Arrival of confiscated works of art for safekeeping at the Museum of Art of Catalonia.’ Palau Nacional, Barcelona, July 1936.
‘Safeguarding Catalan artistic heritage during the Spanish Civil War.’ Seized works installed at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, July 1936.
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