{"id":515692,"date":"2026-04-06T10:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515692\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:51:11","slug":"row-over-frida-kahlo-paintings-set-for-display-in-spain-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515692\/","title":{"rendered":"Row over Frida Kahlo paintings set for display in Spain this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

HUNDREDS of Mexican cultural professionals have expressed their outrage at a plan to export more than 150 works of art to Spain, including masterpieces painted by Frida Kahlo.<\/p>\n

Nearly 400 leading figures have signed an open letter calling on the Mexican government to offer an explanation as to why a vital collection of 20th-century Mexican art is set to be displayed in Spain after a deal was struck with Banco Santander.<\/p>\n

There is particular concern over the works of Kahlo, which were declared as an \u2018artistic monument\u2019 in 1984.<\/p>\n

That status means her masterpieces are only ever allowed to leave Mexico on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n

The works are set to head to Spain this summer for display at Faro Santander, the bank\u2019s new cultural centre based in the northern city of the same name.<\/p>\n

But the statement announcing the agreement with Santander has prompted widespread concern after it failed to disclose when the works would return to Latin America.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Spanish police find painting believed to be \u20ac600,000 Picasso masterpiece that disappeared en route to Andalucia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Frida Kahlo is widely recognised as one of the most important artists in Mexican history. Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

That was aggravated further after Faro Santander\u2019s director told El Pais that the deal was \u2018flexible\u2019 and the collection would have a \u2018permanent presence\u2019 at the venue, located in Cantabria.<\/p>\n

The row is centred around a collection of around 160 works previously owned by the collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman, which was bought by the Mexican Zambrano family in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Gelman collection, as the selection of art is known, includes works by Kahlo and other important Mexican artists including Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Maria Izquierdo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very serious issue,\u201d said Francisco Berzunza, a historian and one of the signatories of the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cKahlo is the most important artist in the history of our country and it\u2019s easier to see her work outside of Mexico than in Mexico itself\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis decree was specifically intended to put a lock on private collections, to ensure they would not leave the country or be dispersed \u2013 that is why we are defending it so vigorously.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Police recover Francis Bacon painting worth \u20ac5 million stolen from Madrid home in 2015<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The works are set to be displayed this summer at Faro Santander, a new cultural centre in northern Spain. Credit: Santander<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the works were not to return, a fundamental part of this artist\u2019s body of work \u2013 and her history \u2013 would be lost. She is, after all, the most important female Mexican artist in history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese pieces are fundamental to telling her story, and they are fundamental to understanding our identity as Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has even chimed in on the debate, stressing that her government\u2019s \u2018desire is for [the collection] to remain in Mexico\u2019.<\/p>\n

Culture minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza said she expected the artworks to return to Mexico in 2028.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Santander stressed that the deal \u2018does not imply, under any circumstances, either the acquisition of the collection or its permanent removal from Mexico\u2019, adding that the works would \u2018return to Mexico at the end of the temporary export period\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, the contract signed between Santander and the country\u2019s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature \u2018may be extended by mutual agreement through the extension of the present contract\u2019, which runs until September 2030.<\/p>\n

Click here to read more Spain News<\/a> from The Olive Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUNDREDS of Mexican cultural professionals have expressed their outrage at a plan to export more than 150 works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1897,6225,6485,6486,180021,180022,134288,1120,138922,96,180023,65261,1735,62876,28055,180024,12727,180025,62877,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-515692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-banco-santander","13":"tag-cantabria","14":"tag-claudia-sheinbaum","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-diego-rivera","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-faro-santander","19":"tag-frida-kahlo","20":"tag-mexico","21":"tag-news-spain","22":"tag-newspaper","23":"tag-northern-spain","24":"tag-santander","25":"tag-spain-art","26":"tag-the-olive-press","27":"tag-uk","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}