Art, Colonialism & the Gelman Collection

On Times Radio with Henry Bonsu, Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio and curator & historian Francisco Berzunza break down the story of the Gelman Collection, its current controversy and implications. 

Transcript

Henry Bonsu 0:00

Henry Boltz, Times Radio. Here's a couple of questions for you. I mean, who owns art? Think of the Algin marbles, think of the penny and bronzes. Who owns culture? Who owns a people's identity? All live questions here in the UK, but particularly in Latin America and indeed Mexico, where one of the country's most celebrated artists, Frida Carlo, is the subject of a row. Let me explain. A collection of her works is due to be shipped to Spain imminently, and it's a move that's causing uh concern among Mexico's cultural community with uh worries about how long the collection may remain abroad, if indeed it will ever come back. We'll go live very shortly to Latin America correspondent John Bonfilio. But first, here are his reflections from an exhibition in Mexico City, just ahead of the artwork's departure.

Jon Bonfiglio 0:50

I just stepped out of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City onto the emblematic vast promenade of reforma, which runs right across the city. And on the face of it, what I've just seen is part of, or the remains of, a collection of one of the most important private concentrations of art anywhere in the world. A collection which is just as elusive as it is renowned. Welcome to the Gellman Collection, named after its now deceased collectors, Natasha and Jacques Gelman, which features some of the most important Mexican masterpieces of the last century, including work by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and the largest number of Frida Carlo paintings in any collection today. And Carlo didn't paint that many in the end. 143, it's believed, of which 55 are her highly recognized self-portraits. Of these, only seven remain in Mexico, a figure which includes privately owned works. The government collection, for its part, including these Frida Carlos, is about to leave the country, headed to Spain in a move and a series of private, undisclosed agreements, which have generated a huge backlash in Mexico, as many here perceive the transfer of the work to be something akin to a massive art heist, at the heart of which is the global finance giant, Santander Bank. It's a deeply murky story which involves secret agreements, disappearing artworks, the Mexican government going against its own national heritage laws, and almost certainly a contract killing. Really, it would not be a stretch to say that this transfer of work across the Atlantic from Mexico to Spain has come to represent the world's most ethically compromised art event of the year. There's a lot of money being spent to keep the story positive, focusing on how the upcoming exhibition is a major coup for international art audiences and their access to iconic art. But under the surface is a labyrinth of questions that refuse to be answered by any of the parties involved. Because the Gilman collection, once famous just for the work it contained, has now moved into the realm of infamy.

Henry Bonsu 2:52

Well, that was John Bonfilio, Latin America correspondent. John's on the line. Welcome. Hey Henry. Hi. This reminds me a little bit of, well, there's several stories, but one that's coming to mind is remember in this country, I don't know if you were here in the UK at the time, the Three Graces, the um the Canova uh neoclassical sculpture, which uh was gonna go, I think it's probably to the States, and then uh there was a huge campaign, it was saved for the nation. Um, can you explain just why uh Mexicans, and particularly those people in the art world, are so concerned about the Gellman collection and the role of Santander in getting them over to Spain?

Jon Bonfiglio 3:32

Yeah, sure, and and you're you're absolutely right. The thing is, it's not just a story in and of itself, it sort of plays into a whole series of narratives about sort of colonialist acquisition. I mean, it's no accident that this is an issue between Spain and Mexico, that it's uh, and actually one of the reasons, one of the purported reasons why there was a delay in the transfer of work across, because it wasn't going to play out well in a public sphere for Mexico to lose national heritage artworks of the kinds of Frida Kale that are protected by Mexican laws during World Cup season. So it's been delayed a little bit. It sort of plays into those narratives, but also it's got just an incredible history in and of itself, which I think is sort of worth uh recounting because this was, as I mentioned in the in the brief bit at the beginning, it's one of the sort of most renowned, famous collections of artwork in in the world. And around about the late um the mid-1990s, when Natasha Girlman, a few years before she died, she was uh she was she was suffering from dementia, and at the time opaquely handed over ownership of the work to her uh to her curator, Robert Lippmann. What then followed was a series of challenges about who actually owned and controlled the work, and then 10 years later, the the notary that signed over the work to Robert Lippmann was then killed, uh gunned down in what appears to have been a contract killing in his car in uh in Mexico uh city. And it's at that point that the work basically disappears uh from view until it re-emerges contemporaneously in 2023, when it's secretly sold to a family in the north of Mexico, the San Branos, a family who made their money from cement production. And it was sold, interestingly, for a sum significantly under uh market value, added to which uh the purchase the purchase wasn't made in cash, but it was made in large part with a loan from Sotheby's financial services, with the artwork held as guarantee against the loan. And then at that point, secretly, uh some of the artwork from the collection starts appearing at auction houses in in New York with no provenance as to as to so no obvious line of sort of history as to where they uh where they come from. And it's important to remember that Gelman's wish um was that the artwork at the collection stay intact and that it stay in Mexico. And that's where Santander Bank come in at the beginning of of this year, when in January they they announced a long-term uh agreement with the Sambrano family for the supposedly temporary use and management of about 160 of 300 of the works. Now, the other 140 works, we don't know where they are, we don't know who owns them, um where they stand. And the the idea was that they were initially going to launch a new cultural center of theirs, the Faro Santander in Santander, Spain, and thereafter to tour internationally. Uh, calls for clarification around these agreements, uh around all the stakeholders, but they all refused, they all denied sort of access or clarity until a leak revealed that the agreement, far from being temporary, was actually uh potentially renewable in perpetuity. And that's where these worries come in, because the fear is that these works may never return to uh to Mexico.

Henry Bonsu 6:29

Well, John, this is a complicated tale, and you can understand why uh people who um live in the art world or those people who are particularly focused on Mexican identity and culture, particularly indigenous culture, are extremely exercised about this. But how broad is the concern and the wider Mexican population? Has it reached people? Are they marching about it? Are they furious about it?

Jon Bonfiglio 6:55

It's it's caused a schism, I think. Um there are definitely different perspectives as to the sort of the um what the right thing to do here. Some people have said, well, look, if Mexico can't care for their own work, then of course it should uh go abroad. Other people have said that, well, look, it's private property, so you know, private property is private property. But there are laws in place from the Mexican government itself, which says that you cannot remove works of national heritage. So the Mexican government is going against their own laws in this particular regard. What I would say is that there are very few people in Mexico who are not aware of this issue. It has been a huge cause to leb. I mean, even the Mexican president, Claudia Scheinbaum, has been forced to uh to intervene. And as I say, I think it's not just Mexico-specific. I mean, it it really comes um sort of scratches into, touches into this whole sort of history of Spain's colonial heritage and not just the history component as well, but this idea that sort of international um sort of banking centers of power can actually basically do whatever it is that they they like and and sort of ride roughshod over national laws. And of course, it's something that we see not just with the likes of banking institutions, but we see with with global tech and a variety of other institutions about where does this sort of global um the global domain, how does that interact with national laws?

Henry Bonsu 8:14

Right. Thank you, John. Let's bring in Francisco Bezunza, a Mexican curator and historian. Welcome, Francisco. You're part of the group Defenders of the Gelman Collection. Now, lots of uh listeners um right now probably wondering, well, what wh why does this matter so much and what are the parallels uh with uh what we see here in the UK? Can you explain just why you felt moved to take action here? Tell us about the open letter you wrote earlier this spring um and the response it received. Because it looks as though you're not gonna get your wish, and this collection is leaving the country, and who knows if it will return.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much for the interview, both Henry and John. Um, I think it's it's interesting if we make a parallel with the UK. Let's say that the most uh uh uh um uh let's say that the National Gallery was gonna give up uh some of its master pieces uh in its collection, like the execution of Maximilian by Money. Like this is just an example. Uh uh on uh that for some reason the the work was underwritten to a bank for a personal loan, and now that uh it is or or or a fine or an institutional loan, it is a work that is so fundamental to the fabric of the institution that if it were to leave the country, there would be a massive uproar. As you have mentioned before, in the UK there have been occasions where uh the public have come together, the state has come together, private companies have come together to try to save works of national importance. In Mexico, that hasn't been the case. In this matter, this is something that out of origin is just very complicated because it was meant to be left to the Mexican people, yet the uh executor of the will uh altered the will. And uh, well, he now has he had all the rights to sell the works privately to the Sambrano family, who are now the owners. So that is a matter that we are facing uh right now because it is a paradox. The most important artworks of the nation are held by private individuals, and that is uh something that obviously causes great concern when it comes to uh colonial relationships like that one of Spain with Mexico.

Henry Bonsu 10:40

Um Francisco, I mean, if the British government of the time, I think it was the Prime Minister John Major, had let the three graces leave the country, they would have paid a price. And that's one of the reasons why, although there's a separation of powers when it comes to um the national museums, particularly those treasures held by the British Museum and the VNA and some of the other uh great uh houses uh the that house uh exhibitions, uh they tread very, very carefully. Uh, what does it tell you about the attitude of the current Mexican government toward the heritage and culture of the Mexican people that is prepared to let this happen?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I think they do not understand how severe the issue is. And sadly, the president has been misguided by her Minister of Culture and her director of the Fine Arts Institute, with whom we have had like a serious public spat, no, as defenders of the Gellman collection. And uh they have become the defenders of Banco Santander and defenders of the San Brano family, instead of defending the heritage of the Mexican people and the Mexican people themselves, no? So it is it is quite an interesting situation. It speaks of the type of banana republic that they are they have turned the country into, no? Uh um, and it is a country that we have to remember. We have a national museum of anthropology that is like world-class. Uh, we have collections that are extremely important. This is the country where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera come from. Uh this is a country that has a lot of experience when it comes to handling its heritage. But for the past eight years of government, uh uh the political party in power has carefully dismantled public institutions that care for the culture of a people. And they're willing to give up the entire or or the second most important collection of Frida Kahlo works in the world just to satisfy the financial interests of a powerful Mexican family and of a powerful Mexican bank.

Henry Bonsu 12:50

Uh Francisco, thank you very much for those listeners who are wondering about Frida Carlo. You've heard the name, but you don't know about her art. I mean, there is an exhibition on at the Tate Modern here in London. Um, Frida, the making of an icon. That's on until the 3rd of January next year. Let's bring John Bonfilio back. Uh John, you and I have spoken quite a bit about Latin American countries and the World Cup, and uh you'll be aware that last Sunday we had um Spain versus Argentina and some of the old colonial ghosts uh came back. Uh what about the current attitude of Mexico or Mexicans toward the old colonial mass of Spain, and to what extent is this row bringing up really deeper painful memories?

Jon Bonfiglio 13:33

I mean, it very much is. Um, notwithstanding, there has been a thaw recently. Um there was there's been a series of apologies issued by by Spain over the colonialist past and history in Mexico, which has been warmly received, because for a period of time in the last 10 years, there was all there were almost no, I mean there were official relations, but it was it was very cold between uh between then President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and um uh and Spain. So things have improved uh somewhat, but this this just takes Mexico right back into uh and Latin America, right back into the darkest days of uh sort of um colonialist history, in which the perception is that um that a historic power can do what it will, uh what it wants with a society history of a people that it subjugated 500 years ago.

Henry Bonsu 14:20

John, thank you very much indeed for your time. John Bonfido, Latin America correspondent, and earlier Francisco Bazunza, a Mexican curator and historian.