The Spanish Gallery is part of a massive regeneration project for the city of Bishop Auckland, in the far north of England, backed with millions of pounds by Londoner Jonathan Ruffer, founder of a major investment company.
It all started in 2012 when the latter bought 12 canvases by Francisco Zurbaran (1598-1664), life-size portraits of Jacob and his sons whose city of 24,000 inhabitants was about to get rid of.
They had been kept in the local castle since their acquisition by a bishop in 1756.
"He thought it was really unfortunate and sad for the town. So he thought we had to buy the paintings, but in the end we got the paintings, the castle and its grounds," Jane Ruffer told reporters. , whose 70-year-old husband, sick with coronavirus, was unable to make the trip on Tuesday.
“The question was what to do with it,” she adds.
"Because if in the past the city had served the castle, the bishop, we wanted to return the favor" and to benefit a population of an area in decline since the closing of the coal mines at the end of the 20th century.
Ten years and 200 million pounds (240 million euros) later, they have managed to bring together 120 works by great Spanish masters of the 16th and 17th centuries such as El Greco, Murillo or Velázquez in the Spanish Gallery, which opened in October last but was officially inaugurated on Tuesday by Queen Letizia and Prince Charles, heir to the British throne.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne (l) and Queen Letizia of Spain (c) visit the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Aukland, north east England, April 5, 2022 RUSSELL CHEYNE POOL/AFP
It is the largest collection of Golden Age art in the UK outside of London, and the only museum in the country devoted solely to Spanish art.
© 2022 AFP