When Switzerland Collaborated with Spanish Genius, 1939-2004-2024

Time to Take Stock

Abstract

Recovering the memory of a forgotten historical event involves recounting the facts and understanding the reasons for the oblivion. The exhibition Les Chefs-d'œuvre du Prado au Musée de Genève of 1939 is a good example of this: despite its success, it is more than forty years before the facts are recounted, and another twenty before the reasons for its oblivion begin to be understood. In 2004, in this same bulletin, the first article in Spanish devoted to both questions was published, making the ambiguity of the sample known. Today, returning to the results of the original research and adding new data that has since been uncovered, it is time to take stock — to open up new perspectives, to question the approaches with which the subject has been investigated, and to remember that the same event belongs to both collective and individual memory.