Cristina Rubio Barcelona
Barcelona
Updated Thursday, February 8, 2024-13:45
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has sent two former Ministers of Culture of the Generalitat, Santi Vila and Lluís Puig, to trial for not returning Sijena's works.
Specifically, the two former leaders are accused of disobedience and the crime of usurpation of judicial powers - the latter associated with Santi Vila - and the court has imposed bail of 17,250 euros on each of them.
The TSJC has decided that Puig, being a deputy in the Parliament and with capacity, will be tried in the Catalan high court, while Vila will sit on the bench of a criminal court in Barcelona. In addition to the crime of disobedience, Vila will face a crime of usurpation of judicial functions. It so happens that Puig is on the run in Belgium due to the 1-O cause.
As a result of the investigation of the case, the court has confirmed that Vila was notified to transfer a series of artistic assets to the Monastery of Sijena - some of which were in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) and another in the Museu from Lleida -, and that moved the assets of the MNAC, but not the 44 pieces from the Lleida museum.
Thus, he was required to hand them over, but according to the prosecutor he refused and, subsequently, Puig, who had just succeeded Vila as head of the Ministry, was notified, without him handing over the assets in the "short time in which he held his position." .