Judge gives MNAC seven months to return Sixena frescoes to Aragon

A court in Huesca, Aragon, has issued a final enforcement order confirming the Spanish Supreme Court ruling ordering the return of the Sixena monastery frescoes currently held at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) in Barcelona.

The judge has set the museum a seven-month deadline to carry out the transfer, in line with the timeline proposed by the government of Aragon.

Judge Rocío Pilar Vargas has given MNAC ten days to submit an alternative timetable.

The court's ruling is definitive and includes a decree outlining specific enforcement measures.

It accepts the Aragonese government's request to allow its technicians access to rooms 16 and 17 of MNAC for as long as necessary, with both rooms closed to the public during this time.

The court acknowledges the operation constitutes "an especially complex execution" and immediate compliance is "not possible" due to "the nature and cultural value of the artworks to be returned."

The judgment recognizes that careful planning is needed for the dismantling, packaging, and transport of the murals.

Possible Fines

The ruling notes that the Aragonese government had requested the imposition of daily fines of €5,000 in the event of missed weekly deadlines.

However, the court decision states that "at this stage of the proceedings, the imposition of financial penalties is not considered appropriate," though such measures could be reconsidered later during the enforcement process.

MNAC reviewing ruling 

MNAC sources told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) on Thursday that they are reviewing the court's decision and stand by their position that removing the paintings is technically challenging and could seriously damage the artworks.

The plan to respond within ten working days.

MNAC recently submitted a letter to the Huesca court reaffirming its intention to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling.

The museum emphasized that while the legal obligation to comply is "beyond question," this does not alter the "material reality" of the situation – namely, the "extreme fragility" of the frescoes and the "irreversible damage" they could suffer as a result of the complex operations required for their transfer, whether voluntary or enforced.

Catalan culture minister, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, emphasized on Thursday that the Huesca judge acknowledged that transferring the murals to Sixena is "particularly complex." 

The minister noted that the museum has ten working days to respond: "That basically takes us into September," she said, as courts in Spain generally close in August.

Aragon welcomes decision

The President of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, called on the Catalan government to stop "putting obstacles in the way" by resorting to "legal loopholes that have no merit," and to focus instead on returning the Sixena murals within the 7-month deadline set by the court.

Azcón welcomed the ruling, saying that "for the umpteenth time, the courts have sided with us," and noted that the court recognized the feasibility of returning the murals to Aragon within the schedule proposed by Aragonese experts.

"We're satisfied and pleased because, once again, justice in this country has prevailed," Azcón said.

Sixena lawyer: Trust MNAC experts 

The lawyer representing the town of Vilanova de Sixena, Jorge Español, has called for a step-by-step approach to the return of the Romanesque murals.

Español did not rule out the possibility of restoring the paintings in situ at the museum before they are moved, given their current condition.

He also expressed doubts that the transfer could be completed within the seven-month deadline.

He urged trust in MNAC's technical team, whom he described as "the most competent and the best in the world."

MNAC frescos

The murals in question are from the Chapter House of the Sixena Monastery in Aragon and date back to the year 1200.

They are a "unique, most important example of medieval Hispanic art,” according to the MNAC, and depict scenes from the Old and the New Testament, including scenes of God showing Paradise to Adam and Eve, and the Resurrection of Christ.

Origin of the conflict

The dispute over the frescoes stems from a 1995 decision by the Vatican to transfer 111 parishes, one of which was the one in Sixena, to the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón in Aragon that until then had been part of the diocese of Lleida in Western Catalonia.  Later in the 90s, the artworks were purchased by the Catalan government.

But the Vatican’s decision triggered legal disputes over the works of art, and this prompted the government in Aragon to bring the matter before the court in 2014.

44 pieces of art had originally been at the Museum of Lleida, but were removed by force by Spanish military police in 2017, after Catalonia had refused to give them up despite a court order.

At the time, Mireia Boya from the Catalan far-left party CUP called the removal an attempt “to humiliate Catalonia.”

Civil War

All the Sixena artworks were part of a larger collection of more than a thousand items removed from the monastery during the Spanish Civil War and taken to Catalonia.

In 1936, the Sixena convent was set on fire, along with all the precious artifacts inside.

That very same year as the blaze, specialists took the art to Barcelona to safeguard and restore it. Some of the items were taken to the Lleida Museum, and others made it into the MNAC in 1940.