Fèlix Millet, during the trial for the looting of the Palau de la Música.Albert García
The former president of the Palau de la Música, Fèlix Millet, has returned to court this Thursday.
From the Brians 2 prison, where he is serving a sentence for the looting of the musical institution, Millet has declared by videoconference about the disappearance of objects that had been seized in the Palau case and that remained in his mansion in L'Ametlla del Vallès (Barcelona). ).
At 85 years old and having difficulty listening to the questions -he has only answered those of his defense-, Millet has said that he was not aware of being the "depositary" of those assets, he has stated that he does not know where they are and has insinuated that they could have been stolen.
A judge from Granollers (Barcelona) cited Millet as being investigated for a crime of improper embezzlement after verifying that part of the assets seized to compensate the Palau for the 23 million of the looting had disappeared. In the room opened by the Court of Barcelona to execute the judgment of the Palau case, the court authorized last year that some experts enter the house of L'Ametlla to assess some 44 seized works of art. But, to everyone's surprise -especially the Palau, which is still waiting to recover from the damage-, some valuable objects had disappeared: a wooden grand piano, an 18th-century headboard, some carved ivory tusks, a dozen animal figures and three stone figures with African motifs.
All these objects are part of the set of assets that, in 2012, the examining magistrate of the Palau, seized.
Millet then remained as the depositary and was warned that he had to keep them in the state they were in and that, among other things, he could not sell them.
In his brief statement from prison, where he is serving a sentence of nine years and eight months, Millet has said that he was not aware of his obligations as custodian and has stated that he does not know the whereabouts of these objects.
The defense insists that, in any case, they are objects of little value.
The former president of the Palau has raised the possibility that they were part of the loot that some thieves took from his house.
Millet has assured that the family filed a complaint for the theft of some jewels -whose documentation does not appear for now in this legal case-, but has explained that perhaps these seized objects were also taken.
Both the wooden piano and the headboard appeared at the home of Millet's wife - who died in 2018 - but the whereabouts of the rest of the objects remain a mystery.
His right-hand man at the Palau, Jordi Montull - who obtained the third prison degree - is also being investigated for hiding the rental of some buildings from the Barcelona Court.
Montull assured that his only livelihood is his pension, with which he also has to support his wife.
