After controversy, the Gelman Collection takes center stage at Spain’s new museum

“Thank you, Mexico,” Banco Santander President Ana Botín said at the opening of Faro Santander in northern Spain. Behind the gesture stood months of controversy over the temporary transfer of the Gelman Collection from Mexico.

The collection includes 18 works by Frida Kahlo, along with paintings by Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. It also contains photographs by Graciela Iturbide and Guillermo Kahlo. Its scale and importance have made it one of the most significant collections of 20th-century Mexican art.

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Thank you, Mexico.

Banco Santander reached an agreement with the Zambrano family in January to manage the collection. In Mexico, the arrangement was interpreted as a disguised removal of works protected by national legislation. President Claudia Sheinbaum repeatedly said the paintings would return to Mexico “as the law requires.”

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as the law requires

Mexican law allows the private collection’s works to be displayed abroad, but not sold, because they form part of the country’s heritage. The controversy led museum officials to postpone the opening, originally planned for June. Faro Santander director Daniel Vega said the works would be cared for and preserved with “absolute knowledge and respect.”

The museum eventually opened with Spain’s King Felipe VI and British architect David Chipperfield in attendance. Chipperfield’s team transformed the bank’s historic headquarters, an emblematic building facing Santander Bay, into a museum with more than 10,000 square meters devoted to art. A glass roof now floods the monumental entrance arch with light, while the building’s main facade remains intact.

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absolute knowledge and respect