New Arrivals

El Prado does not have an annual acquisitions budget, unlike other museums (in Spain, for example, the Reina Sofia), so that to acquire new works depends on to make special deliveries through donations , inheritances and tions, and purchases made by the State. The plan charged the U.S. consultancy Boston Consulting in the days when Eduardo Serra was chairman of the board expected to give the museum an amount of 3 million annually for this purpose. This plan was not approved by the rejection that arose in the sense that it involved a commodification of the museum. However most of the measures that have been established subsequently applied, it being just one of the few that have not been. Ali Aboutaam La Trinidad, Jose de Ribera, the first acquisition of the Prado Museum.From the early interest was shown in supplement Prado collections through the acquisition of new works and made a few months after its foundation, on 5 April 1820, he bought the first one, La Trinidad, Jose de Ribera, by Ferdinand VII which paid 20,000 reales. The Museum’s acquisitions have been very important in terms of quality and number (more than 2,300 works only in the paint section) and, as noted, have taken place in different ways . On the one hand, gifts, inheritances and legacies, fundamental nature of philanthropy and its role often searched complement existing collections. In the early days was used in a way that was public subscription to purchase a particular work, although it is now obsolete. Second, the policy of acquiring works of art by the State, which has often had as a beneficiary to the Prado.This last point is to highlight the mode of payment of taxes by works of art, or tion, adopted by the Spanish Historical Heritage Act 1985 and which has enriched the collections in a very remarkable state. This possibility, inspired by the famous “Law Malraux” French, could be applied initially to the inheritance tax, extending any tax liability under the Patronage Act of 2002. Policies aimed at enlargement of the Prado have tended to reinforce existing collections to fill the office.Works are incorporated well Velazquez (The Barber of Pope), Goya and Vald s Leal, but also some artists with poor presence in collections, such as Lucas Cranach the Elder (a very remarkable Virgin and Child, payment in kind of businessman Juan Abell ) or John of Flanders (his masterpiece, The Crucifixion, painted for the altarpiece of the Cathedral of Palencia, in 2005 also received lieu of payment of taxes, in this case the company Ferrovial -7 M -). 10 would be neat detailing all acquisitions made by the Museum in its almost 200 year existence. For legacies, the most notable of recent times was made by Manuel Villaescusa, in 1991.With its amount, he bought a group of works among which stand out the game still life, vegetables and fruits from Sanchez Cotan, hurdy gurdy playing Blind Georges de La Tour (painters both no presence in the museum until that time), the Fable El Greco and part of the Countess of Chinchon, Goya, paid in part with funds from another state (the latter described as “acquisition year” worldwide by Apollo magazine). The Countess of Chinchon, Goya, the most significant acquisition of the Museum in recent years. Looking back in time, were also very outstanding donation of Baron Fr d ric mile d’Erlanger (1881) and the legacy of Ramon de Errazu (1904), Paul Bosch (1915) and Pedro Fernandez-Duran (1931) and Grant Cambo (1941).The grant from the Belgian banker Emile d’Erlanger was the series of black paintings of the Quinta del Sordo, farm located on the banks of the Manzanares River which had belonged to himself and Goya d’Erlanger had acquired in 1873, making the switch to canvas paintings that were executed on the walls of the house.After trying unsuccessfully to sell in Paris ended up donating it to the Prado, almost as a way to get rid of them, noting that, at that time were not overly appreciated. The Mexican of Spanish origin (Basque-Navarre and Andalucia) Ram n of Errazu bequeathed in his will to the Museum oils and watercolors of nineteenth century artists, most notably Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo Raimundo Ernest Meissonier and French (the Portrait of Josefa and attempted Manzanedo Mitjans Manzanedo Marchioness of this painter bequeathed actually the Museum of Modern Art, but ended up in the Prado to absorb that in 1971) and Paul Baudry, who bequeathed the Pearl and the wave, one of the highlights of the nude that were painted on the Paris of the Second Empire, which was acquired by the Empress Eugenia de Montijo after exposure in room 1863. Paul Bosch of Barcelona was one of the largest donations in the history of the Museum.

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