MNAC In Barcelona Has Yet To Follow A Court Order To Return Murals

The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) is still holding onto one of Spain's most contested medieval ensembles, nearly a year after the country's Supreme Court ordered it returned to Aragon. The Sijena Monastery murals, a 13th-century cycle often described as the“Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art,” have not yet left Barcelona.

The ruling, issued in May 2025, capped more than a decade of legal conflict between the Aragonese government and MNAC. The murals were taken from the Sijena Monastery in 1936, after the building was set on fire during the Spanish Civil War. MNAC restored the works, mounted them on canvas, and has displayed them since 1961.

A museum spokesperson said the delay is tied to“technical arguments.” MNAC has argued that the murals could be harmed if they are moved without climate control, especially given the 150-mile transfer from Barcelona to Villanueve de Sijena. The museum currently keeps them in a sealed section of its Oval Hall, an installation designed to evoke the architecture of the space they originally occupied.

The murals depict scenes from the Old and New Testament, along with a genealogy of Christ. Their style reflects both English miniature painting and Byzantine art, a combination that helps explain why they have long been treated as a landmark of Romanesque painting.

The dispute now sits at the intersection of restitution and conservation, two imperatives that often collide when fragile works are tied to competing claims of heritage. For MNAC, the question is not only where the murals belong, but how to move them without risking the survival of the paintings themselves.

MENAFN17042026005694012507ID1110998471