The curator of a forthcoming exhibition of the works of Miró, still in State ownership after botched attempts to sell them off, Robert Lubar says the set of 85 pieces should stay in Portugal, be kept together and that the pictures deserve to be on permanent display.
The eagerly awaited Miró exhibition to take place at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Oporto, said "there is no doubt that the collection deserves to be exposed permanently in a top end Portuguese cultural institution."
Asked by news service Lusa whether he agreed with the €35 million reserve valuation attributed to the collection by the auction house Christie's, for an auction that did not occur, Robert Lubar said that "the economic value of the collection is higher, but the cultural value for Portugal is beyond limit."
"With the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, and the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, this collection forms a cultural triangle in the Iberian Peninsula, its value is priceless. Keeping this collection as part of a set has a high cultural value, both to Portugal and to Spain," said Lubar who also is the director of the Joan Miró international research group.
Lubar said the works to be exhibited include many outstanding pieces of the Catalan artist's career that demonstrate the highest artistic achievement of Miró.
"It's a very high quality collection, one that never again can be built in the future. I would say that the set makes sense as a whole without being encyclopedic. It gives us an extremely rich vision of the artistic career of Miró," added the director of New York University in Madrid.
The Miró collection came from Banco Português de Negócios (BPN), and "includes a total of 85 works of Miró from 1924 to 1981" including "drawings and other works on paper, paintings, six 1973 tapestries, a sculpture, collages, a work from the ‘burnt canvas’ series and several murals.
Most of the collection will be on show, "except for a few that do not fit in well with the exhibition theme, ‘Joan Miró: Materialidade e Metamorfose," said Lubar.
According to information published by the Serralves Foundation, the show will include 75-80 works, most of them unknown to the public.
The announcement of the show at the Serralves Foundation is set with a backdrop of ministerial assurances that the collection is not sold off piecemeal at auction.
The Minister of Culture, Luís Filipe Castro Mendes, said "the desire of the Government is that the Mirós stay in Oporto," laying down a challenge to the city to find the collection a permanent home.
For the background to the Miró collection and how it ended up in public hands, click on:
'New government wants Miró collection to stay in Portugal'
