He Mayor of CordobaJosé María Bellido, spoke this Monday about the offer made to the City Council of Córdoba by a collector from Pozalben (based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife), to show six paintings by Julio Romero de Torres that he ownsas ABC announced this Sunday. The proposal he did it April And fell on deaf earsalthough the PSOE revealed it this month. This media exclusively showed the six works of Blas García, the collector, and approved by Mercedes Valverde (the main expert of the painter and former director of the Municipal Museums of Córdoba).
Bellido, questioned by himself The City Hall might be interested in this.insisted in the municipal version that “we are not aware of this offer”, despite the fact that García insists that he sent an “email” in April offering the Councilor for Culture, Isabel Albás, a transfer of his paintings so that they can do an exhibition with works by Romero de Torres from private collectorson the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the painter’s birth, an anniversary that will be celebrated in 2024. And this has left no door open for the City Council of Córdoba to also promote the exhibition of this collector’s paintings.
“We are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Romero de Torres. He Director of Municipal Museums and the The staff of the Ministry of Culture knows all the construction site that Julio Romero de Torres has in the world,” Bellido said.
“These paintings may or may not be offered, but These are obviously not mysterious works. HE knew of its existence” he said, ignoring relevant facts, such as the two of them (“Portrait of Adela Carbone” and “Sulamita”) They had been in Latin America for a centuryuntil their recent return to Spain; and? five of them have never been exhibited in Cordoba.
The officials of the Ministry of Culture, he defended, have drawn up a program for this anniversary “spectacular“He mentioned the exhibition in which the works of Romero de Torres will dialogue with more contemporary authors, in collaboration with the Telefónica Foundation, and the exhibition in which the production of the Cordovan painter will be related to that of Zuloaga, with paintings from the Fine Arts of Bilbao.
Criticism of the PSOE
“This is what the City Council of Cordoba has decided to do. We, as everyone will understand, We are not at the mercy of what a private collector offers. or the emergence of a political group to set the agenda for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Julio Romero de Torres,” he said. To then make it clear that he did not like the PSOE put this on proposal on the table: “This is a very low-level debate on the part of the socialist group which raised it.”
“We don’t know nor what excessive interest there is in the collection of a certain individual. Because we all also know that the evaluation of a work is influenced by its presence or not in certain exhibitions because obviously this revalues them,” said the mayor.
He stressed that the PSOE “it seems that this is the caseI don’t know if consciously or unconsciously, to do some people a favor“We are defending the public interest, I am very, very, very, very pleased with what we are doing with Julio Romero de Torres on the occasion of his 150th anniversary,” he said.
He added that in addition, the The city council already has contracts the acquisition of “Rivalidad”, also owned by a private company (Prasa), which will be incorporated into the Municipal Museum of this artist. “We must stay away from certain debates in which certain individuals want to involve us, who will legitimately defend their interests, and certain political groups.”
THE news of the purchase of ‘Rivalidad’ became known in March of this year and even with an acquisition value: 700,000 euros by the City Hall which, however, will now undertake the hiring process of this purchase six months after he learned of the agreement. It is one of his greatest paintings because, although he made other nudes, it represents the zenith. It shows two women wearing nothing but high-heeled shoes.
