He Portrait of a cleric He stays. This has been sentenced by the Supreme Court after the appeal of its owners to the judgment of the Superior Court of Madrid of 2023, which established that the table had been correctly listed as a good of cultural interest (BIC) by the Community of Madrid and, therefore, , the limitations that this condition determines, including that of not being able to export the painting outside Spain without the permission of the Ministry of Culture and, in no case, to be able to sell it abroad.
The conflict began when the family formally showed in 2015 its intention to take out the painting from Spain and sell it abroad, launching a temporary export file “with the possibility of sale”. It is at that time that the Ministry of Culture precautionaryly prohibits exporting the work and urges the Community of Madrid to sign the declaration of cultural interest, something that, however, does not happen immediately, but that It takes five yearsuntil shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic.
The appeal before the Supreme since this statement was delayed five years after the request of the Ministry that the picture was cataloged as such. They considered those affected that such delay led to expectations that were finally confirmed.
Declaration without “bankruptcy of trust”
However, the High Court dismisses such violations and determines that the declaration “has not generated, according to the administration, an injury of legitimate trust based on the coherence of administrative behavior, which has later been altered, changed , or disallowed surprisingly. ”
“Take into account,” explains the speaker of the sentence, magistrate María del Pilar Teso Gamella, “that the essential for the appreciation of the violation of legal certainty and legitimate confidence is that the final conduct of the administration is contradictory with The previous acts, for being surprising and incoherent with their previous behavior. ”
“And in this case,” Reason, “the delay to initiate the procedure is not a discordant action with the above, nor contradictory with the meaning of the decision of the administrative procedure declaring well of cultural interest.” Therefore, the magistrates of the Chamber fail that “the contested sentence does not incur the infractions denouncing the recurring part, with respect to the declaration of cultural good, in relation to the nature of the decision on the inexportable nature of the good, nor regarding the connection between the two expressed procedures. ”
A work of “remarkable technical and artistic quality”
In its resolution of 2023, the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, which supported the declaration of the picture attributed to Velázquez as BIC and, therefore, its prohibition of being sold outside Spain, declared “the remarkable technical and artistic quality of the work of the work , and the notable ability of its author to reflect and transmit authenticity and the psychological depth of the character, which seems to be one of the features that make painting out of other of the same period and make it exceptional and that can even be appreciated by Legas people in the matter. ”
For this it was based on the file of the technicians of the Community of Madridthat contrast that of the expert hired by the owners of the painting to try to cancel their protection. Based on this specialist, the family that owns Portrait of a cleric The community’s decision to protect the picture resorted, arguing, among other things, that it might not have been painted by Velázquez, which does not deserve the consideration of good of cultural interest and that, in case of staying in Spain, it will end at home particular without anyone being able to enjoy their contemplation.
On the other hand, the file of the community technicians also recorded that the piece required improvements in its conservation. According to the text, Portrait of a cleric He was then “in a poor state; part of the pictorial surface has been lost; It shows a face burned by the loss of wakes; In the suit are observed transparency areas and large small offenses, affecting the reading of the work and the original volume sensation ”.
A BIC must be careful for its owner
According to the Cultural Heritage Law of the Community of Madridwhen an art work becomes part of the catalog of goods protected by an autonomous community, the owner has the obligation to keep it and take care of it. Among other things, you cannot sell it abroad, in any of the ways and cannot deposit it in a museum for an indefinite time even if it is not a sale.
Yes, the law, with the permission of the Ministry, to take it out of Spain for a temporary exhibition in a museum, and can also be sold within the country, but with special conditions, including the right of tanteo of the Community of Madrid. On the other hand, to get a BIC from the country, a series of requirements must be met, such as temporality, security during transport, during the stay and its return.
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