An out-of-court settlement reached by CALIOPE ART LAW has resulted in the release of two works of art seized during the Spanish Civil War and returned to the parishes of two small towns in Guadalajara. These works had been held in the custody of the Prado Museum ever since. Thanks to the efforts of the Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara, channeled through the diocesan delegate for Cultural Heritage and director of the Museum of Ancient Art of Sigüenza, Miguel Ángel Ortega, the parishes of Yebes and Pareja can once again enjoy the possessions that have always been theirs.

 

Essential to locating the whereabouts of the artifacts has been the report on seized assets directed by Professor Arturo Colorado Castellary, published by the museum itself in 2023, as well as the valuable documentary contributions regarding what happened to the panel "Christ before Pilate" decades ago by art historian Peio Hernández Riaño. Equally useful for our internal investigation have been the report on the provenance, chronology, and current status of both pieces, prepared by historian Luis Manuel García, born in Yebes, and the cataloging report prepared by the director of our department of Due diligence artistic, Verónica Otero Pérez. 

 

Finally, thanks to the museum's elaborate internal legal report, which provided new historical data extracted from its archives, the State Attorney's Office for Culture and later the State Attorney General's Office were able to study the entire file with the utmost rigor and prepare their own reports, which recommended to the Directorate General of Fine Arts the return of the assets.

 

Temporarily, the works will be exhibited in the aforementioned museum in Sigüenza, accessible for the first time permanently to everyone, while awaiting the adaptation of both temples for their proper conservation.

 

It is worth highlighting the objectivity and professionalism of all those who made this restitution possible. Beyond ideology and politics, the matter was resolved according to strictly legal criteria and the principles of historical redress. Special mention should be made of the legal experts who collaborated with us on restitution matters, providing insightful suggestions from a legal and procedural perspective: lawyer Javier Pérez Fernández and Professor Luis Arroyo. 

 

Due to the author's connection to the land of Guadalajara, we are very pleased to have contributed to the return home of these two works, especially the panel "Christ before Pilate," which was intermittently exhibited at the Prado National Museum, after decades of unsuccessful attempts by those who tried their luck in a much more unfavorable and opaque setting.