Barcelona, Catalonia, a former Generalitat lawyer has criticised the Catalan government’s decision not to appeal the Sixena paintings ruling to the Constitutional Court. Xavier Muñoz Puiggròs said the move was a missed opportunity to defend Catalonia’s cultural heritage.
Muñoz Puiggròs, who handled the civil cases linked to the Sixena artworks, said the government confused the dispute with the procés independence movement. In his view, that led to a political choice to step back from the case instead of defending what he described as an important cultural and patrimonial history to the end.
He said the decision not to appeal was taken by senior political figures in the Generalitat, not by the lawyers. Muñoz Puiggròs, who says he has 40 years of experience as a Generalitat lawyer, said he was disappointed by that approach.
He also questioned the original legal strategy. In his account, the lawsuit was filed against the MNAC, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, rather than against the Generalitat, which he said held title to the paintings. He added that the Generalitat distributes museum-eligible assets to museums under its authority, and that the MNAC is a public consortium museum that includes the Generalitat. For background on the museum, see the MNAC official website.
Muñoz Puiggròs said the Department of Culture asked him to appear as a third party only after several months had passed. He said he then provided evidence that the Generalitat held title to the paintings under a comodato, or deposit agreement for museological purposes, as set out by the nuns who owned them. He also said an appeal to the Constitutional Court could have stopped the execution of the ruling if it had been admitted.
He said the Generalitat is now taking a low profile in the Sixena case, with the MNAC leading the response. He described that as surprising, given that the Generalitat is the competent cultural administration in Catalonia and that the Constitutional Court ruled in 2012 that custody of these assets belonged to the Generalitat. Muñoz Puiggròs said he believes the sentences will be enforced. For the court’s own information, see the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Muñoz Puiggròs has been involved in the Sixena civil cases since 2012. He said that year’s Constitutional Court ruling affirmed Catalonia’s competence to protect and exhibit the heritage from Sixena, because the assets had been in Catalonia for many years, protected by public museums, and held under authorisations granted to the Generalitat. He said the ruling also included a clause on civil ownership that he considered unnecessary, and that Aragon later used that opening to continue the litigation. For the legal framework, see the Boletín Oficial del Estado.
