The Generalitat de Catalunya has claimed extrajudicially from the government of Aragon 791,119.47 euros for the sales of works from the monastery of Sijena carried out in 1983 and 1992 and for the conservation expenses of the pieces while they were in the Museu de Lleida.
The claim comes after the courts annulled those sales and 44 works were returned to Sijena in December 2017. Therein lies the fundamental clash: Catalonia now asks to be compensated for contracts declared null and void and for the cost of guarding pieces that are no longer in Lleida, while Aragon maintains that the conflict was settled in the courts.
The Generalitat gives 10 days to negotiate 791,119.47 euros
The document, signed by the Minister of Culture Sònia Hernández, grants a period of 10 days to open direct negotiations. If there is no response, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Consorci del Museu de Lleida announce legal actions.
The sum claimed is divided into two blocks. On the one hand, the update with the CPI of the annulled contracts raises the sale of 1983 to 218,227.5 euros and that of 1992 to 202,090.31 euros, with a total of 420,317.82 euros for the two annulled operations.
On the other hand, the Generalitat puts the cost of conservation and preservation of 44 pieces in the Museu de Lleida between 1999 and July 2016 at 370,801.65 euros.
The contracts of 1983 and 1992 were declared null and void by the court of Huesca in 2015. The Supreme Court confirmed this nullity in 2018.
Aragon rejects payment and considers the judicial conflict closed
From Zaragoza, the response was immediate. The vice-president of the government of Aragon, Mar Vaquero, called the claim a "tantrum" by the government of Salvador Illa and said that her executive does not contemplate opening negotiations on an issue that it considers already resolved judicially.
Vaquero also rejected the calculation regarding the conservation of the works. In her opinion, it is "far-fetched" that Catalonia claims this expense for pieces that, she stated, they have been enjoying for decades in museum exhibitions and for which admission was charged.
The litigation over Sijena and the heritage of La Franja also maintains other open fronts between Catalan and Aragonese institutions. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya sent a burofax to the Order of Saint John, the monastery of Sijena, the Order of Malta, the bishopric of Barbastro-Monzón, and the nun Virginia Calatayud Aleixandre to request a good-faith negotiation on the economic consequences of the nullity of the sale.
The case drags other returns since 2017
The return of the pieces from Lleida was executed in December 2017, during a police operation with the Guardia Civil in full period of intervention of the Generalitat by article 155. Before that transfer, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya had already delivered 12 works out of a total of 56.
New movements followed. Between February and March 2021, another hundred works from La Franja were transferred to the Diocesan Museum of Barbastro.
The dispute has not ended in Barcelona either. A year ago, the Supreme Court ratified a 2016 ruling from the Huesca court that orders the transfer of the Romanesque mural paintings exhibited by the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
Also still pending claim by the bishopric of Huesca are the altarpiece of Berbegal, the panel of Sant Pere, and the portal of the church of El Tormillo de Peralta de Alcofea.