Great news from one of Europe’s top museums! The Prado Museum announced last week that it will be open for every day of the week, no longer closing every Monday. This measure will go into effect first only for the exhibition of “The Hermitage in the Prado” which will be open Monday to Sunday beginning on November 8, 2011. The permanent collection of the museum will begin opening daily beginning on January 16^th, 2012. The Prado, which has a general entry fee of 10 Euros (about $14), will remain open even on Good Friday, when it has traditionally been closed; it will be closed only three days a year, Jan. 1, May 1 and Dec. 25 This improvement in service to the public will also see an increase in the hours that the museum allows free entry. Visitors will now be able to enjoy the museum for free every day during the last two opening hours. (Monday to Saturday from 6pm to 8pm and Sunday from 5pm to 7pm)The Monday opening is an effort to guarantee the sustainability of the museum in the coming years with a goal of eventually generating 60 percent of its operating budget through entry fees and other income to help offset reductions in government support in the weakened European economy.

Velazquez’s – The Surrender of Breda or The Lances  – Part of the Prado’s permanent collection.

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Part of the large and well-chosen art collection of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza is now on display in the specially adapted Palacio de Villalón in Málaga, on Spain’s south-eastern ‘Costa del Sol’. The permanent collection consists of 230 works by Spanish 19^th-century artists, with special emphasis on Andalusian themes. This is a welcome addition, with strong local flavor, to Malagá’s already impressive list of cultural offerings, from the Roman/Muslim fortress dominating the old city to the Picasso Museum housed in another well-adapted historic palace in the city where the artist was born.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid houses two large collections covering the whole of western art from 1290 to the present day, in addition to regular important temporary shows. Now the museum is offering special visits for families with children between the ages of 6 and 12, on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The experience starts with a private tour of the permanent collection before the museum opens to the public, followed by a specially-designed theme workshop. The aim is to stimulate children’s imagination and capacity for observation. In another new move, the museum will keep its temporary exhibitions open until 11 pm on Saturdays for the remainder of 2011.

We are excited to hear that researchers at Madrid’s Prado Museum have announced the discovery of a previously unknown work by the master Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a sprawling, 5-by-9-foot tempera-on-linen peasant scene called “The Wine of St. Martin’s Day.”

“The discovery of the painting is fantastic news for the history of art,” Prado director Miguel Zugaza said.

Spain’s El Pais newspaper said the museum was prepared to pay about €7 million ($9.33 million), but that the painting could fetch as much as €25 million if sold in the private sector.

The owners of the painting had wanted to sell it and had unaware that it was a Bruegel. Sotheby’s of Madrid then asked the Prado to study the much-deteriorated work and investigations gradually brought to light that it was a Bruegel.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the patriarch of a prolific Flemish painting dynasty, is known for his landscapes and depictions of peasant life.

Prior knowledge of the painting’s image was known from an ancient engraving, but the work itself “had been taken for lost,” Zugaza said. The painting was brought to Spain from Italy by the ninth Duke of Medinaceli in the 17th century and remained in the family’s hands up until recently, he said. Its current owners were private collectors who did not want to be named.

The minister said the owners had indicated they would prefer it went to a national museum rather than into private hands.

It’s a remarkable event, it’s unlikely that there will ever be another Bruegel discovered again in such an unexpected manner. There are barely 40 Bruegels in the world,” said Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35860/spain-discovers-a-bawdy-unknown-work-by-pieter-bruegel-the-elder/

http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/23/spain-ids-previously-unknown-bruegel-masterpiece/

http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2010/09/24/prado-discovers-a-breugel/

http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php?/news/comments/spains_prado_museum_restorers_find_unknown_bruegel_masterpiece/

Other works by Bruegel

http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bruegel/bruegel.html

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Spain’s newest museum,  The Museum of Human Evolution is due to open in the northern city of Burgos on July 13, 2010. The location of this museum is important as it is located just 10 miles/15,km from the world famous archaeological site of Atapuerca. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Atapuerca’s excavations have revealed remains of one of the most significant settlements of the first Europeans. The human fossils recovered from Atapuerca so far constitute 85% of all the world’s fossils from the period known as the Middle Pleistocene.( 781—126 thousand years ago)

Undoubtedly the Museum will be a global reference point for prehistory, both on a scientific level and in terms of education and dissemination. Atapuerca Palaeontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga stated to El Pais Seminal “This is a unique museum in the world. There is nothing like it. During its conception, our team had decided that we did not want a museum of prehistory, of fossils and bones. We wanted a museum of the living, not of the dead. For this reason the building is very bright, the architecture is very open, like a huge glass box..”  The museum will also have exhibits which will interpret what the findings at Atapuerca can help us understand about ourselves. It will also be a center for research.

Another important factor in differentiating this museum from others is that the museum will show authentic fossils, contrary to many museums which exhibit copies while the original pieces are kept in safes. Among several, one of the treasures of the museum is Skull 5 known as ‘Miguelon’. It is one of the most complete human fossil skulls in the world, found in 1992 at Atapuerca and dated at 400,000 years old. 

Burgos is a plesasant city to visit, along with its charming old quarter with its many churches and convents, it is home to an extraordinary Cathedral, considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Gothic art.  A visit to Burgos would fit nicely into a route including Madrid, the Rioja wine region and the northern cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian or even west to Galicia. For those interested in pre-history, we also recommend visiting the Altamira cave museum (near Santillana del Mar and Santander).

Atapuerca Links:

Museo de la Evolución Humana – http://www.museoevolucionhumana.com

Palaeontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga’s website:  http://www.atapuerca.tv/

Atapuerca Foundation: http://www.atapuerca.org/

http://www.fundacionsiglo.com/atapuerca/datos_en.html

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/atapuerca.html

The public square in front to the CaixaForum Madrid will host monumental bronze cast sculpture of a seven meter high elephant by the artist Miquel Barcelo until June 13.

The sculpture is part of the exhibition that opened its doors on February 10, 2010 and will encompass the trajectory of the Majorcan artist since 1983.

It is the first time that Miquel Barceló has displayed this monumental sculpture, from 2009, as part of an exhibition. The elephant will invite visitors to enter the Madrid CaixaForum and experience the creations of Barcelo, an essential figure in the Spanish contemporary arts scene.

140 works will be part of the show which includes ceramics, sculpture, drawings, watercolors, posters, books and traveldiaries. Barceló himself will be present so the spectator can better understand the creative process of this artist of international importance.

 CaixaForum Madrid is open from Monday to Sunday 10.00 a 20.00 h

 Address: Paseo del Prado, 36

28014 MADRID

 More information:

http://www.esmadrid.com/en/cargarBuscadorAgenda.do?codigoEvento=E5479&codigoLocal=2516&tipo=1

http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/nuestroscentros/caixaforummadrid/caixaforummadrid_es.html

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Less than 4 years after architect Jean Nouvel completed the striking new addition to the Reina Sofia Museum, the museum’s director Manuel Borja-Villel has announced expansion and new offerings to come soon. The Reina Sofia, which is housed in a building that was Madrid’s General Hospital when inaugurated in 1781 (designed originally by Francisco Sabatini and Juan de Hermosilla) and was converted into an art museum in 1980, will diversify and increase the museum’s exhibitions over the next year. In 2009 the museum will feature poetry readings and dance performances to take advantage of the new semi-covered terraced wing designed by Nouvel. Renovations are also planned through 2010 although the museum will not close. More natural light, more exhibition space and a gallery where the bookshop used to be are among the changes that visitors will see. Also projected for 2010 is a complete study of the museum’s most famous work, Picasso’s Guernica, which is currently undergoing a series of tests to determine its state of preservation.

As a result of successful CaixaForum museums in Mallorca, Barcelona, and Madrid, the CaixaForum will open another museum in Girona in 2010. The centre will feature spacious galleries for exhibits from the 21st century, an auditorium to accommodate 200 people, and will be host to various accessory shops and child activity centres. With increasing diversity of options in CaixaForum Gerona, the new contemporary art museum will offer promote knowledge for all ages through exhibitions, concerts, literature and poetry sessions, up-to-date debates, educational workshops, and directed activities.