The Supreme Court resolves that Goya’s portraits of Charles IV and María Luisa de Parma belong to the State

The Supreme Court has ruled that the portraits painted by Goya of King Charles IV and his wife Queen María Luisa of Parma belong to the State. The First Chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed the extraordinary appeals for procedural and cassation infringement filed by Altadis SA, putting an end to the litigation between the private company and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports over the ownership of two paintings painted by the Aragonese painter.

The portraits of King Charles IV and his wife Queen María Luisa of Parma were painted by Goya in 1789 on behalf of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville to be displayed in an ephemeral monument that was going to be placed in front of the Factory’s façade, as part of the festivities with which the city of Seville celebrated the beginning of the new reign.

The ruling is based on the unquestioned fact that the two portraits belonged to the crown’s assets in 1789 and then passed to the State. Next, the high court in its resolution lists the different entities that succeeded in possessing the portraits until the current one, Altadis SA.

After analyzing the documents and communications between the parties, the Supreme Court has concluded that the Ministry allowed the Tobacco Leasing Company, to which this monopoly was leased in 1887, to possess the portraits with a decorative function in its buildings, but “did not renounce its ownership at any time.”

The TS considers that the plaintiff, Altadis SA, has not proven that “that original possession became the owner, the only one who is suitable to acquire the property by usucapion, acquisitive prescription, in accordance with art. 1955 CC.”

On the other hand, the Supreme Court remembers that art. 28 of Law 16/1985, of June 25, of the Spanish Artistic Heritage, declares in its section 2 that “the movable property that is part of the Spanish Historical Heritage may not be alienated by the Public Administrations, […]”. And in section 3, it expressly declares that “the assets referred to in this article will be imprescriptible. In no case will the provisions of article 1955 of the Civil Code apply to these assets.”

For this reason, the Supreme Court continues, “although in the bailment contract signed by the Ministry and Tabacalera in 1999, it recognizes that the latter was the proprietary owner of the two portraits, it does not constitute a sufficient title for the State to lose ownership of these two works.”

ALTADIS ACCEPTS THE RULING BUT DOES NOT SHARE IT

After the ruling, Altadis has reported that it complied with the ruling, although it has assured that it “does not share the substance” of the judicial solution. The company has insisted that “it was the legitimate owner” of the works, something that, according to Altadis, “the State itself recognized on multiple occasions, “the most significant being the signing of a bailment contract in 1999.”

Meanwhile, sources from the Ministry of Culture have told Europa Press that they still do not have the ruling, and therefore, they have not been able to read or analyze it. In any case, they call it “good news” to recover these two paintings by one of the best Spanish painters. “Our goal now is that citizens can enjoy them,” they add.