The Dalí museums (Figueres, Púbol and Portlligat) have recovered well from the pandemic. Although they have not yet reached the number of visitors for 2019 –more than one million–, in 2022, with 817,097 people, they have achieved more benefits than then: 4.6 million euros compared to 3.9 million in 2019 .
This is so, as explained yesterday at a lunch with the press in Barcelona by the president of the Dalí Foundation, Jordi Mercader, because they have managed to reduce expenses, which have gone from 12.3 million in 2019 to 10.7 million in last year. Revenues register a decrease from 16.3 million to the current 15.3.
Among the projects, the most imminent is the exhibition at the Figueres museum, starting in early November, of the Christ of Saint John of the Cross, a 1951 painting owned by the Kelvingrowe Museum, in Glasgow, "a city that has only been He left on one occasion”, according to Mercader. The work will have a special presentation that will include music by Bach, as well as "a reinterpretation of the meaning it has in the author's production."
"We have many works in the warehouse," Mercader admitted, when asked if he would like to open a new office, "that is an idea that sometimes haunts us, that would not go badly, but that has not materialized yet and, if it does , it would be in the long run and in Catalonia”. "Nothing else fits in the museum," he added, "and we continue buying." Despite having collaborated, he expressed doubts about the municipal project to open the artist's birthplace in Figueres to the public, with an immersive exhibition included, since "it is not so easy to get people to come."
Visitors come mainly from France (36%), followed by those from the rest of Spain, which are 15%, and Catalans, 10% of the total. Russian visits have plummeted (105,000 fewer people) because of the war.
The foundation will allocate its surplus to artistic investments (purchase of works), heritage maintenance, investment in knowledge and to promote the internationalization of the center, with special attention to markets such as China, Korea, Japan and the US, where it is estimated that there are plenty of field to grow.
Likewise, two new life trustees have been appointed – pending the mandatory approval from the Royal Household – the academic Estrella de Diego and the economist David Vegara, replacing José Vilarasau and Ana Beristain, who have resigned.
Mercader criticized Daliland, the film performed by Ben Kingsley about the painter, "made without our authorization or that of the heirs, that is, the State." No audiovisual offer has been accepted because "the criterion is not to monetize Dalí but to make him known, the truth can be told in a respectful way and without using certain themes as a claim".
A new code of ethics will govern the operation of the institution, which includes the creation of a mailbox for anonymous complaints.
Mercader also highlighted the exhibitions that are being seen in China, in the Shanghai metro and the immersive projects in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Florence or Auckland.
