IGUEMUS. El impacto de la guerra civil en la configuración de los museos en Catalunya. Trazabilidad, localización y destino de los bienes culturales

IGUEMUS The impact of the civil war on the configuration of museums in Catalonia. Traceability, location and destination of cultural assets (PID 2021-124518NB-I00)

Program

Project granted within the framework of the competitive grants "Generación del conocimiento" aimed at R+D projects.Financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Agency and the European Regional Development Fund, within the framework of the program "Ayudas 2021 a Proyectos de generación de conocimiento del Programa Estal para Impulsar la Investigación Científico-Técnica y su Transferencia, de Plan Estal de Investigación Científica, Técnica y de Desarrollo 2021-2023".

Duration

4 years

Budget

€96,000

Description

The devastating effects of the Spanish Civil War on cultural heritage are well known, as are the policies deployed by the government of the Republic and the Generalitat in Catalonia for the protection of artistic and scientific treasures, both public and private. However, the stage following the exile of the republican institutions, with the assimilation of cultural heritage by Francoism, is the stage where the most doubts remain to be resolved. Moving towards a new horizon in the knowledge of the effects of the war conflict on heritage, the action of the Servicio de Defensa del Patrimonio Artístico Nacional (SDPAN) in Catalonia will be studied. This service began its actions coinciding with the fall of Lleida (April, 1938) and continued to advance until the total occupation of Catalonia (February, 1939). At the end of the war, it was the body responsible for the heritage and, therefore, the artistic deposits gathered by the Republican government and their subsequent return and distribution.

Knowing in detail the actions of the SDPAN in Catalonia during the Civil War with the advance of the front, as well as in the first period of Francoism is the next step and the direct consequence of the work carried out so far by the ICRPC and the researchers that this project brings together. With IGUEMUS. The impact of the civil war on the configuration of museums in Catalonia. Traceability, location and destination of cultural assets saved, it will be possible to complete the portrait of one of the most tumultuous periods for cultural assets. Restoring the complete itinerary that these works underwent also has an important derivative. A large part of the current museum collections are made up of works ceded in deposit by the SDPAN, but lacking documentation that explains their provenance, preventing their optimal cataloging. Singulating these works by tracing the itinerary they followed from July 1936 until their entry into museums would allow us to document provenances that have been ignored until now. At the same time, the analysis of these collections will allow us to advance our knowledge of the formation of a large part of the collections contained in Catalan museums. And at the same time confirm one of the working hypotheses of the present project. Beyond the widely studied losses and destructions, the cataclysm of the Civil War had a derivative that has not been sufficiently taken into account until now. The basis of the collections of a large part of today's museums is formed by the works gathered by the Republicans and entered by the Francoist authorities. We are facing a fundamental issue for the history of the heritage of Catalonia and its museums. A topic that has not been dealt with before in Catalonia and whose study will allow, in the future, to establish parallels with other territories of the Spanish State and even with other conflicts of an international nature.