Moving ‘Guernica’ requires a complex and dangerous operation for the painting. Now the Basque Government wants to do it

‘Guernica’ is an unusual painting in many aspects. Its history is. It is he tour that took him to several continents during his first decades. And so is its size, much (very) larger than the vast majority of paintings that hang in museums. This sum of factors explains why it is now at the center of a bitter controversy. The Basque Country wants to temporarily take it from Madrid to Bilbao to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the bombing which inspired Picasso, but its current custodian, the Reina Sofía, believes it is a bad idea.

The debate is served.

What has happened? That the Basque Government wants ‘Guernica’, probably Pablo Picasso’s most famous work, finally exposed in Euskadi. A few days ago, during a meeting with the Minister of Culture, the vice lehendakari Ibone Bengoetxea requested the Government to temporarily transfer the painting to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. She wasn’t the only one. The same request Lehendakari Imanol Pradales has transferred it to the President of the Government.

The idea is that ‘Guernica’ ends up in Basque lands nine monthsfrom October 2026 to June 2027. After that period, he would return to what has been his home since the beginning of the 1990s, the Reino Sofía Museum in Madrid, where he acts as the main attraction, capturing tens of thousands of visitors.

Why is it important? Because of its symbolic load. ‘Guernica’ is not just any painting. Picasso painted it between May and June 1937 in his workshop on Rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, commissioned by the Government of the Republic. The work is also inspired by one of the most disastrous episodes of the Civil War: the bombing of the town of Guernica (Vizcaya) at the end of April 1937 by the Condor Legion and the Italian Legionary Aviation.

Although during its first decades it was the protagonist of an intense journey that took it through a good part of Europe, North America and South America, the work did not land in Spain until September 1981. Some historians like The Barroquistahave interpreted his arrival as “the symbolic return of the last exile.”

And why is it news? That Euskadi wants it to be exhibited in Bilbao right now, between October 2026 and June 2027, is no coincidence. It would coincide with the 90th anniversary of the constitution of the first regional Executive and the bombing of Guernica. Hence Bengoetxea has insisted in the “deep historical, symbolic and emotional meaning” that the transfer would have for the Basque people.

Will it be possible? Of course it won’t be easy. Just one day after the meeting between Bengoetxea and the Minister of Culture, the Reina Sofía Museum published a report of 16 pages in which he “strongly advises against” the transfer of the painting from Madrid to the Basque Country. The reason: the process could damage it.

“The work is kept in stable conditions thanks to rigorous control of the environmental conditions. However, in view of a possible transfer, its format, nature of the elements that compose it and state of conservation, together with the numerous damages suffered over time, make it especially sensitive to all types of vibrations that are inevitable in transporting works of art.”

Does it say anything else? Yes. In case there are any doubts, underlines: “Such vibrations could generate new cracks, lifting and loss of the pictorial layer, as well as tears in the support.” The opinion of the Reina Sofía of course has not pleased the Basque Government, dissatisfied with both the substance and the form.

“It would be serious for a formal request from a government to be responded to without a serious and in-depth analysis. The order must be an analysis of the needs so that the painting can be in Euskadi temporarily,” claims Bengoetxea.

The regional Executive emphasizes that this is not a simple technical issue. In the background, they insist, there are much deeper readings that affect “memory” and “repair.” The vice lehendakari first complaint and that at the moment it has not received “any official response” from Moncloa.

Is it that surprising? Yes. And no. Everything that revolves around ‘Guernica’ arouses expectation, something understandable if one takes into account that the artistic value of the work is added to its historical and symbolic relevance. However, Reina Sofía herself has been responsible for highlighting that his position is not new.

In fact, it has been closing the door to organizations that request a loan for the work for several decades. In 1997 he already said ‘no’ to a request for the painting to be included in the inauguration from the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and that it arrived backed by a report in which “the technical conditions” of the transfer were detailed.

Have there been more cases? In 2000 ddenied a request of MoMA, in 2006 he did the same with the Royal Ontario Museum and in 2007 he rejected another request from the Basque Government. Two years later he again said ‘no’ to the Fuji Group, interested in including the piece in the “50th Anniversary Fuji TV” exhibition, held in Tokyo, and in 2012 he also rejected the request presented by a Korean museum.

The painting’s last trips date back a few decades: in 1981 it was packed up at the MoMA for transfer to Spain, where it was first exhibited at the Casón del Buen Retiro and later (from 1992) at the Reina Sofía. There alone the exhibition “Piety and Terror in Picasso”, organized during the 80th anniversary of the work, attracted more than 625,000 visitors. And that in less than half a year.

Is it so problematic to move it? The report published by the Reina Sofía Museum not only advises against the transfer of ‘Guernica’. Before reaching that conclusion, he offers a detailed analysis of the current state of the painting, in which he notes “alterations such as cracks, cracks and microfissures.”

“In many cases the most important cracks were intervened with wax applied to the back and adhered Japanese paper reinforcements that were placed in the 1964 restoration,” the report affectswhich speaks of “loss of polychromy” and “pictorial gaps”, among other defects. The reason? The technicians are clear about it. “Mostly” they attribute them to the “tensions caused by the numerous windings, transfers and manipulations during their years of roaming.”

Is it all the fault of the trips? In the report There is also talk of the wax applied to the painting during its 1957 restoration and it is recognized that the paint used by Picasso himself carries “an added fragility.” However, the technicians focus much of their attention on the continuous journeys that ‘Guernica’ experienced during its first decades, especially between the 30s and 50s.

“After suffering more than 30 wanderings, with as many windings, in 1957, given its poor state of conservation, resin wax was applied to the reverse and bands of linen and cotton fabric were placed in the weft and warp.”

Have you traveled that much? Yes. A few years ago El Barroquista dedicated to the subject a wide thread in X in which he points out that ‘Guernica’ is, “possibly the most traveling painting in the history of art.” It may seem exaggerated, especially if you take into account that the work was painted in the 1930s and has not left Madrid for several decades, but its journey is certainly fascinating.

‘Guernica’ was painted in Paris in mid-1937, it was included in an exhibition that toured several cities in Europe, it moved to the United Kingdom and (at the end of the 1930s) it made the leap to the United States, where after a brief exhibition in New York it traveled through Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, San Francisco… In the 1950s it flew to Europe again to be shown in Milan and then undertook a new trip to Brazil. His journey continues through Europe, the US and finally Spain.

What happened during those journeys? The problem is that ‘Guernica’ is so large (776.3 x 349.3 cm) that, as remember The Barroquistaon many trips the painting had to be rolled and unrolled before being fixed to the frame, a “tremendously delicate” process that ended up taking its toll on the work.

Not even his transfer from Casón del Buen Retiro to Reina Sofía (both in Madrid) was easy. Although it was a very short itinerary, a few hundred meters, it required a considerable deployment of media. Now he faces a considerably greater challenge: a trip between Madrid and the Basque Country.

Image | PromoMadrid, author Max Alexander (Flickr)

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