Gelman Collection controversy reaches Mexican courts

A citizen collective called Defence of the Gelman Collection filed legal action on 1 July against Mexican cultural authorities to challenge a long-term agreement governing the circulation of the Gelman Collection, a group of 160 works of 20th-century Mexican art including 18 by Frida Kahlo. The dispute intensified after Fundación Banco Santander announced new management in January following the collection’s 2023 acquisition by the Zambrano family, and as 68 works from the renamed Gelman Santander Collection went on view at Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art on 17 February—its first exhibition in Mexico in 18 years—featuring Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943). The collective argues that at least 30 works by artists including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and María Izquierdo are protected as “artistic monuments” under Mexican heritage law, and that Kahlo’s works face stricter controls under a 1984 presidential decree limiting export. The plaintiffs seek to annul a 7 January agreement involving Mexican authorities, Santander, and the Zambrano family, alleging it unlawfully sets a renewable five-year term without an export permit or financial guarantee for return; after the Mexico City show closes, the collection is slated to travel to Cantabria, Spain, for the 8 September opening of Faro Santander before an international tour.

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