Despite last week’s ‘people’s victory’ that stopped the cash-strapped government selling millions of euros worth of Joan Miró paintings at a massive loss, Portugal’s prime minister has said the sale “must go ahead”.
Passos Coelho’s reasoning is closely linked to the fact that it is costing the government a whopping €4.3 million per year just to keep the paintings in a bank vault.
Blaming Christie’s auction house for the fracas – which saw the controversial sale blocked at the 11th hour on a legal technicality – Passos Coelho was unrepentant.
“The decision (to sell) was taken a long time ago. We need to be realistic. We cannot invert our priorities,” he told Público newspaper, explaining that if Portugal made the €30-40 million expected from the sale, there are “many other more important things to do in Culture”.
The government will now get the collection back to Portugal and reorganise for its despatch with all the necessary paperwork, to be sold either through Christie’s or “maybe other auction houses”, said Passos Coelho.
The news comes as a heavy blow to the around 9,200 art lovers who signed a petition campaigning against the controversial sale.
Backed by left-wing politicians who pushed through two legal bids, protesters claimed the paintings should remain in Portugal, the property of the people – particularly as it was taxpayers’ money that bailed out the failed BPN bank which originally owned the works.
By the same token, Correio da Manhã newspaper revealed the paintings have “already cost the treasury over €82.5 million” – therefore trying to off-load them at such a huge loss would appear to make no real sense. As an Australian news service pointed out, it looks like “a surreal plan to recoup debt” from start to finish.
Legally, both attempts through the Portuguese courts for injunctions floundered, but judge Guida Jorge did agree that the government had been “manifestly illegal” in the way it shipped the paintings, as the paperwork was dated long after the works had arrived in UK. It was this legal question that led Christie’s to pull the plug on the much-publicised auction.
It remains to be seen now whether any new legal moves will be able to stop the loss of what is considered to be a real “trove” of works by the 20th century Catalan painter.
One of the many arguments against the sale of so many paintings at one time is that it would “flood the market” and actually reduce the price of Miró’s work for “years to come”.
One of the pieces in the Portuguese collection is the famous “Women and Birds” (pictured), which Christie’s valued at between €4.9 million to €8.5 million.
