'Mata Mua' would not return to Thyssen before 2021

Four months after Carmen Cervera removed four capital paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, the Minister of Culture, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, according to the collector's lawyers, has asked for another three months to negotiate the rental contract that the collector intends .

The current deadline for that agreement, which would also mean the return

of Paul Gauguin's

, expired at the end of September.

"The painting will not return until there is an agreement," says Ángel Acebes, Cervera's lawyer.

According to the new deadlines, confirmed by both parties, the museum will continue without the precious piece, at least until the end of the year.

• Armored trucks and submachine guns to remove 'Mata Mua' from the Thyssen Museum

• 'Mata Mua' and cultural politics

Cervera's lawyers, Acebes and José María Michavila, assure that they understand the delay because it is "an exceptional time and the ministry has its own problems."

It is not the best time to try to close the seven million euros per year for the rental of the collection for the next 15 years.

They prefer to "not pressure" Rodríguez Uribes.

For now, Javier García Fernández, Secretary General of Culture and responsible for negotiating with the collector, has not met with the other party to auction off the rental price of the 429 works.

Carmen Cervera assures that none of the four paintings that she took from the Thyssen Museum in June have come

Carmen Cervera, owner of

, valued at 40 million euros, took advantage of a slip in the closing of the agreement for the extension of the collection housed in the museum to dispose of the jewel (along with three more works:

, by Monet;

, by Hopper, and

, by Degas), which had been on loan to the museum since 1999. The reason for the march, at the beginning of June, was to show it abroad and receive a rent for him, without ruling out the possibility of sale.

At the moment, as this newspaper has learned, it has not received any firm offer for

.

As Cervera himself assures, neither has he sold any of the other three paintings.

"It's not easy for me to do it, I'm a collector," she says.

And it does not close the possibility of a return of the group, if the negotiation is closed in favor of their interests.

In a bank

Mata Mua

has not unpacked in all this time from the box that protects it since it left the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.

And he has not starred in any exhibition.

The painting crossed the Peninsula in June to stay in the vault of an Andorran bank.

Cervera planned to turn Gauguin's painting into the great attraction of an exhibition that would place the focus of the art world on the cultural center that bears his name in the principality and directed by his nephew, Guillermo Cervera.

A few weeks after the Thyssen painting left, Guillermo Cervera announced that the work could be seen at his institution on June 30.

Two days later he rectified the decision.

The reasons that were alleged were "insurmountable logistical causes related to the movement of the

work

."

There was no further explanation.

Guillermo Cervera's lawyers reported that insurance refused to cover the display of the valuable canvas at that center.

"They demanded security requirements typical of large international museums," they indicate.

“I was quick to announce the exhibition, because I thought it would be easier.

With the insurance requirements we lost the strong months of tourism in Andorra ”, he adds.

"The priority is for

return to Madrid as soon as possible, if we reach an agreement with the ministry," the lawyers insist.