Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ Could Leave Madrid for the First Time in Over 30 Years
The Basque regional government has asked Spain’s Ministry of Culture to approve a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which would be the painting’s first trip since it was installed at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía in 1992, ARTnews reports citing the newspaper Ara. The proposed loan would run from October 2026 to June 2027, aligning with the 90th anniversary of the April 26, 1937 bombing of Guernica by Nazi and Italian Fascist forces. Basque president (lehendakari) Imanol Pradales framed the request as symbolic reparation and historical memory, while the Reina Sofía has “strongly discouraged” any move, citing the work’s fragility. The article notes the painting’s history—created in Paris in five or six weeks, measuring 11 feet 5 inches by 25 feet 6 inches, shown at the 1937 World’s Fair, held at MoMA from 1939 under Picasso’s condition it not return until democracy, and transferred to Spain in 1981—alongside political pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose minority government relies on Basque nationalist parties.
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This story was covered in Masterworks Stolen, Restitution Wars Escalate