The painting "
Mata Mua
", one of the most famous by French painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), will remain on display in Madrid after an agreement between the Spanish state and its owner who took it out of the country, announced on Tuesday August 3 the Ministry of Culture.
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The ministry announced that it had approved a rental agreement of 97.5 million euros over 15 years for the Carmen Thyssen collection, with "
preferential acquisition rights on all or part
". The lease covers more than 300 works, including some by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Rodin, Canaletto, Fragonard, Courbet and Boudin.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid houses the collection of the Swiss heir to a powerful industrial lineage, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (who died in Spain in 2002), which the Spanish state bought in 1993 for $ 338 million. The fact that Baron Thyssen's last wife was the Spanish Carmen Cervera (later Carmen Thyssen), who also put together her own collection, played a decisive role in this acquisition.
The collector's paintings are currently on display at the eponymous museum in Madrid as part of a free loan agreement signed in February 2002 and subsequently extended.
But in 2020, when the museum was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Carmen Thyssen brought the “
Mata Mua
” out of Spain, raising fears that the collector's works would eventually leave the institution.
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In an interview with the newspaper
El País
in February, Carmen Thyssen assured, about the "
Mata Mua
", that "
she will return when the rental contract has been signed and the formalities of transfer of a work of this importance will have been made
”. The museum is now awaiting its return.