• This was the Nazi bombing of Guernica: who, why?
  • Documentary 'Guernica in five senses', an exhaustive journey through the return of the masterpiece to Spain
  • Anniversary This was the flight that brought the 'Guernica' to Spain 40 years ago without the passengers and part of the crew knowing

Visitors who come to the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid can now photograph Guernica, a decision of the new director of the center, Manuel Segade, which applies from September 1, with the only condition of not using stabilization elements or flash.

With this measure, Segade wants to improve the experience of seeing Picasso's most famous painting, Museum sources have explained to Efe.

Find out more

The looks.

What 'Guernica' eclipsed: the milestone of Spanish art in the Pavilion of the Republic

  • Writing: VANESSA GRAELL

What 'Guernica' eclipsed: the milestone of Spanish art in the Pavilion of the Republic

Art.

Plainclothes policemen reinforce the surveillance of 'Guernica', which is exhibited without glass in the Reina Sofía Museum

  • Writing: EUROPA PRESS

Plainclothes policemen reinforce the surveillance of 'Guernica', which is exhibited without glass in the Reina Sofía Museum

"Our intention was simply that it could be done normally, not to announce or to the press or anything because if photos are taken throughout the museum, in all the great museums of the world and, above all, that we live already mediated by cameras continuously, when we go to a concert, when we go to any cultural event ... because we believe that it does not make sense that Guernica does not have that same iconicity that it deserves, "said Segade.

Speaking to Efe from Sao Paulo, where he attends the opening of the Art Biennial, Segade said that people should be able to have their photo with Guernica "as with any other cultural phenomenon."

In reality, the ban affected the entire room in which the painting is located and was in force to protect a very fragile work, which was hung on the walls of the Reina Sofía in 1992 from the Casón del Buen Retiro, where it had been exhibited since the painting arrived in Spain in 1981 after 42 years at the MoMA in New York.

It was the only area of the museum that visitors could not photograph, but now the ban has been removed because technological means have changed and no longer endanger the work, the sources said.

It is a way to give more facilities to the visitor and that he can do like Mick Jagger, who in June 2022 visited the museum and portrayed himself in front of the painting, an image much criticized in social networks given the exceptionality of the fact.

Mick Jagger, leader of the Rolling Stones poses in front of Picasso's Guernica.E.M.

Of course, you can not use any type of stabilizer, or selfie stick, or tripod, or flash. And the capacity will continue to be controlled as before.

In this way, only three photographic 'collages' by Oskar Schlemmer remain in the Reina Sofía that cannot be photographed because his heirs do not allow it.

"I would like us to reach one hundred percent photographic accessibility, especially for that young audience that also lives filtered by a screen. I think it's also important to pay attention to their way of approaching reality," Segade added.

  • Reina Sofia Museum
  • Pablo Picasso
  • Painting