"They will give them to us." This is how convinced the Aragonese president, Javier Lambán, was on Tuesday about the future of the mural paintings of the Sijena monastery in litigation with Catalonia before the Supreme Court. “We have fought important battles, and so far we have won all of them in court. The one with the paintings remains and I am sure they will return, ”he stressed.
Lambán spoke to the media after an extraordinary Governing Council was held on the walls of the monastery of Santa María de Sijena, which just a century ago today was declared a National Monument. This was the main act of a broad program with which Aragon intends to value throughout the year an emblematic architectural complex for the Aragonese Crown, but which in recent years has led a bitter conflict with Catalonia on account of the dispute over the goods.
In his appearance, the socialist reviewed the outstanding history of the monastery, which in its glory days was a royal pantheon, the seed of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon and came to house one of the most relevant art collections of the Middle Ages . But as he recalled, with the 19th century came its decline, aggravated by the confiscation, the looting of its heritage and the Civil War, in which it ended up being burned down.
"The atrocities committed in the Republican rearguard were voracious, not only those of the anarchists who came with the 'Durruti Column', but also that of some Catalan intellectual who took advantage of the circumstances to take the paintings," criticized the Aragonese. Harsh words with which he seemed to refer to José María Gudiol, a member of the Committee for the Salvage of Artistic Heritage of the Generalitat who transferred the affected wall paintings to Barcelona.
Lambán recalled how the different regional governments have invested some 6.5 million euros in recent years in improving the monastic complex and that in June the works will be ready in the new space destined to house the goods that returned "justifiably". Five years ago. In total, 95 pieces that between 2016 and 2017 were transferred after a judicial decision from the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC, which had to return 51) and the Museu de Lleida (44), where they had remained for the last decades.
By 2023, the Supreme Court is expected to rule once and for all on the future of the latest works in dispute, the mural paintings of the chapter house that the MNAC currently keeps. "The cloister is in perfect magazine condition so that these paintings return as soon as the courts give us the reason definitively, which they will give it to us," predicted the Aragonese.
In addition to the advisers of the Aragonese Executive, the official opening of the Sijena Year was attended by Sister Virginia Calatayud, the Federal Mother of the Order of the San Juanistas and, therefore, the legal representative of the monastery. Next to her were also high representatives of the Order of Malta
Today's act has been complemented with the edition of a non-venal facsimile with the Sijena rule that has been delivered to all attendees. The oldest version, from the 12th century, is in Latin and is preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Huesca. It is an unpublished text, practically unknown, that regulates the daily life of the female community.
It is also planned that this year the old liturgy of the monastery will be recovered, which remained intact for centuries and has not been celebrated since the San Juan nuns left the convent (1970), as well as different talks, projections and artistic recreations.
But not all residents are satisfied. From the local platform Sijena Yes they regretted that the monastery celebrates its centenary without the works being completed and without a specific opening date set for the new museum area. They also criticized the lack of information about the events on the part of the regional government, which has scheduled them privately and not open to the public.
