The MNAC will present its "technical inability" to move the Sijena murals without damaging them.

They aren't refusing to hand over the Sijena murals; they just don't know how to do it without damaging them. This could sum up what happened at the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the National Art Museum of Catalonia. After asserting that they respect the court ruling of May 27 and accept its compliance, they claim they don't know how to carry out this process without endangering the works.

For this reason, in the fourth point of their statement, "it is agreed to request a court order to report the museum's technical inability to carry out this operation."

Although it may seem like a legal ploy to extend the deadline for delivery of the works, the statement insists on complying with the court ruling and creating a working group, jointly with Aragon , "to evaluate and carry out the work necessary to comply with the legal resolutions." This would create a commission of specialists with the experts chosen by the Government of Aragon, as well as those of the members of the board of trustees, the State, the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Barcelona City Council.

An early morning meeting was scheduled for a Board of Trustees who knew their hands were tied when it came to halting the Supreme Court ruling. Sadness and concern were the general sentiment in a museum that has guarded, preserved, and exhibited the works for more than 60 years and now stands helplessly watching as its work could be lost, destroying a cultural heritage, both national and universal, dating back to the year 1200.

The meeting of the board of trustees was attended by Jordi Martí, Secretary of State for Culture ; Sonia Hernández, from the Department of Culture of the Generalitat (Catalan Government); and Xavier Marcé, Councilor for Culture at Barcelona City Council; the Second Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Maria Eugènia Gay; as well as the museum's director, Pepe Serra.

First, the Board of Trustees wished to praise the "impeccable work" carried out by the MNAC in the safekeeping and conservation of the pieces saved from a fire in 1936. " The museum has guaranteed their universal accessibility , and they have been visited by millions of people and studied within the framework of the most prestigious Romanesque conferences in the world."

In the second point of its statement, the Board of Trustees wished to make it clear that the works at Sijena constitute, by law, real estate assets that are considered assets of cultural interest . Their protection and care, therefore, are important, and their integrity must be safeguarded.

The essential part of the agreements reached by the board of trustees comes in the fourth point, when they discuss the "impossibility of transferring the mural paintings to restore the Chapter House of the Royal Monastery of Sijena without putting them at risk." Therefore, the museum has decided to "request an enforcement incident in court to report the museum's technical inability to carry out this operation within the timeframe established by the civil procedure law, nor technically."

The statement insists that they are not refusing to return the works, but rather urging the opening of a study process to find the best way to do so while minimizing all risks. In this regard, they conclude that the most appropriate course of action is to "ask the various administrations that make up the consortium to create a technical working group composed solely of specialized personnel."

Finally, they insist that for this work to be effective, they insist that the Government of Aragon participate with its own technicians in this study, "designating the specialists it deems appropriate." What is clear is that the transfer will not be simple and must be carried out with the greatest possible guarantees.