The Prado Museum in Madrid

The Prado Museum acquires the Naseiro collection of Spanish still-lifes

The Prado Museum in Madrid has finally acquired the collection of Spanish old masters still-lifes, property of Rosendo Naseiro, considered the most important of the world, for a joint price of 26 million euros, in collaboration with BBVA Bank. The collection includes about 40 canvases from the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries.

A spokesmen from the Museum have declared that the price paid for the lot is far below from the price that they would have reached in the open market, putting as example that the star lot of the set – “Still-life with artichokes and plums” (1627) by Juan van der Hamen- is valued in 18 million euros (?)

So everybody look very happy to have contributed to improve the collection that already is by far the best collection of Spanish painting in the world (we will see how many of these pictures end up in the dark Museum’s deposits). Personally, I still think the same about the acquisitions made by the Prado Museum in recent years: I understand the opinion of all the people who consider that the Prado must continue being an almost exclusive Museum of the Spanish Baroque (Miquel Barceló said that he loves the Prado for being “radical, almost exclusively Baroque”), but I do not share it. In my opinion, the Prado is no longer a collection of “Royal whims” as it was in past centuries. Now is a Patrimony of all the Spanish people and, like so, I would have oriented its acquisitions to those artistic periods not represented in its initial collections, avoiding sectarian visions of the Art. But I know that this opinion is minority.