UB researchers find, in a Swiss private collection, six Catalan Romanesque painting pieces lost more than 50 years ago

The researchers that identified these pieces are Professor Milagros Guardia and Professor Juan Antonio Olañeta, from the research group Ars Picta. One of these pieces is an image of Saint Gervasius, original from Santa Maria de Cap d’Aran, one of the most important churches in Vall d’Aran. A large part of the paintings from this church can now be seen in The Cloisters Museum in New York. The other three panels found — two apostles and the representation of the Christian symbol of a fish — belong to the church of San Lorenzo de Isavarre.
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Images of these four pieces are preserved in the collection of the Mas Archive of the Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art, but for more than fifty years their location was unknown. On the other hand, art historians did not know of the existence of the other two pieces they found. These are representations of the symbols of Saint Lucius and Saint Mark: the bull and the lion, respectively, from the church of San Isclo and Santa Victoria (Surp).

The journey of these six paintings dates back to when they were taken in the 1940s, by Ramon Gudiol, and their subsequent sale on the initiative of the antique dealer Josep Bardolet. They were acquired by the Swiss collector Arthur Wilhelm and, in the sixties, after his death, they were placed in the Kuntsmuseum Basel, which did not identify which churches the works came from. Finally, in 2008 they became part of the private collection where they are now.

The UB researchers traced the pieces to the Kuntsmuseum Basel and asked the museum to contact the current owners. One day, they received an email offering them the chance to view and photograph the pieces. "Rarely do specialists have the opportunity to recover some of these prodigal children, those pieces of our heritage that had been lost track of; and more so in this case, which are pieces that are part of some of the sets most affected by the heritage diaspora", note the researchers.

These findings have been published in the journal Lambard. Estudis d’art medieval (Institute for Catalan Studies). Soon, the researchers will bring to light other works in which they will try to recompose the sets of paintings they found.