More than 200 artists and arts professionals in Mexico signed an open letter last week accusing the government of making “institutional mistakes” after allowing a newly re-exhibited art collection to travel to Spain.
The collection includes approximately 300 works formerly belonging to Jacques Gelman and Natasha Gelman. The collection includes a collection of treasures: some 18 works by Frida Kahlo, as well as paintings by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and other giants of the history of modern Mexican art.
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according to a national newspaper Reports earlier this year said 160 of the works had resurfaced in the collection of Banco Santander in Madrid. In less than a year and a half, this report came one after another national newspaper The Mexican government claimed in the report that it did not know the whereabouts of some of Gelman’s collection.
The Santander Foundation now houses the works in Spain, although they are classified as artistic monuments in Mexico, a status that only allows them to be exported for one or two years. Daniel Vega Pérez de Arlucea, director of a new foundation run by Santander called Faro Santander, which was launched in June, has previously said that Mexico “will comply with customs obligations and our responsibilities.” But an open letter released last week claimed INBAL failed to do this.
“There is no doubt that the change of ownership is a strictly private matter; however, the fate of the works protected by these decrees – for which the National Academy of Arts and Letters is required to take steps to ensure their protection and safekeeping – concerns us all,” the letter reads.
Signatories include Cuauhtémoc Medina, one of Mexico’s leading curators; Magali Arriola, former director of the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City; and Teresa Margolles, an outstanding Mexican artist who received a special mention from the jury at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Vega Pérez has previously said that the export license “can be extended at the discretion of INBAL”. However, the letter said, “We do not believe that the laws of this country are flexible, let alone subject to change at will, and without disclosing the reasons for this flexibility, it should be said that this flexibility has not yet been granted to other collectors who may wish to enjoy the same privileges as Santander.”
Additionally, the letter accuses INBAL of being “opaque” in how it collects the collection and claims the organization has “failed to fulfill its responsibilities.”
In February, INBAL issued a statement about the Gell-Mann collection, noting that it was not seeking to acquire the artworks because “it is indeed an extremely expensive collection and public resources are not necessarily sufficient to acquire a collection of this size,” said Alejandra de la Paz, the organization’s director. Parts of the collection are now on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.
The collection was formed in the 20th century after Jacques Gelman fled Europe for Mexico in 1938. Three years later he married Natasha Zahalka Krawak, who was born in Czechoslovakia. They collected a rich collection of Mexican art and kept it in their home. Their bedroom even displays five of Kahlo’s paintings. Jacques died in 1986 and Natash in 1998.
They also collected European modernist art, and after Natasha’s death many works from this area of art history were sent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Mexican part of their collection is very important. 2024 national newspaper The report quoted art market expert Alberto Bremermann as saying, “In addition to its economic value, the Hermann Collection is an important representative of Mexico’s artistic identity.”
