Madrid
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The Ministry of Culture commemorates throughout this year the centenary of the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Exportation of Spanish Historical Heritage Assets. The activities to celebrate this anniversary will begin in February with the public presentation within the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía of the work ‘Head of a Young Woman’ by Pablo Picasso, declared unbearable in 2012 by a report from this body. The former president of Bankinter Jaime Botín was sentenced to 3 years in prison and a fine of 91.7 million of euros for a crime once morest the Spanish historical heritage, when trying to get that work of Picasso out of the country, despite not having the authorization of the Ministry of Culture.
The painting was located on board a ship in the port of Calvi (Corsica), from where it was scheduled to be transferred to Geneva. The authorities intervened the boat and repatriated the Picasso to Spain. Valued at 26.2 million euros, belongs to the Gósol period of the Malaga painter and has become part of the collections of the Reina Sofía, a museum that houses the state collection of Picasso. The work remains in the custody of the State in the warehouses of the Madrid art gallery since it was repatriated in 2015 following a coordinated operation between the Ministry of Culture and the Civil Guard.
The event will coincide with the celebration of a Extraordinary meeting in the same museum, the first to be held in person, following almost two years of virtual plenary sessions due to the pandemic. Another of the milestones that will be organized on the occasion of this centenary will be an exhibition in the State Museums and Archives, as well as in the Institute of the Heritage of Spain (IPCE) and the National Library of Spain (BNE), of the most significant pieces acquired by the Ministry of Culture and Sports through the Board. In addition, a conference will be held on the trajectory and functions of this body, in which some of the most notorious files and matters in which its intervention has been essential, such as the case of the ‘Ecce Homo’ by Caravaggio.
The direct antecedent of the current Rating Board was the Commissions for the Valuation of Artistic Objects, created by royal decree published in the ‘Gaceta de Madrid’ on February 19, 1922. It established Commissions in Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastián, Valencia, Seville and Palma de Mallorca, its main powers being the appraisal and control of the exit of Spain of cultural property.
Subsequently, in June 1960, through the Decree on exports of works of historical or artistic importance, the unification of all these Commissions was established in a single Board of Qualification, Valuation and Exportation of Works of Historical or Artistic Importance, which continued to carry out its work until the enactment of the current Law 16/1985, of June 25, on the Spanish Historical Heritage and Royal Decree 111/1986 on the partial development of this Law, in which the configuration and functions that the Board has today are adopted .
Awarded in 2021 with the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Exportation of Historical Heritage Assets is an inter-ministerial advisory body, eminently technical and expert, which, through the study of the different proposals and files that are presented to it, advises the General Administration of the State before that it administratively resolve matters relating to the movable property of our cultural heritage.
Their Principal functions are to inform regarding the convenience of granting authorizations for the export and import of cultural goods, as well as to issue proposals for the acquisition, by the State, of goods to be incorporated into the collections of museums, archives and libraries state, as well as many others related to the protection of heritage, such as the adoption of the precautionary measure of inexportability, the valuation of illegally exported goods, etc.
The Board of Qualification, Valuation and Exportation of Historical Heritage Assets is made up of 22 members and a secretary. A total of 18 members are appointed by the Minister of Culture and Sports, 15 of them at the proposal of the Director General of Fine Arts and three at the proposal of the Director General of the Book, among people of recognized competence in the different fields of action of the Board . The other four remaining members are appointed by the Minister of Finance and Public Function, one at the proposal of the General Director of Customs and Special Taxes and three at the proposal of the General Director of Taxes.
In addition, the Minister of Culture and Sports freely appoints a president and a vice-president from among the members of the Board proposed by the general director of Fine Arts. The position of member of the Board lasts for two years, and its members may be reappointed, without there being a limit of consecutive appointments. The structure of the Board is completed with the figure of the secretary, who has voice but no vote and will be the head of a unit dependent on the General Sub-Directorate of Records and Documentation of Historical Heritage, proposed by the general director of Fine Arts.
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