Collections on Deposit: The Transfer of Objects to the Museum of Industries and Popular Arts of Barcelona During the Postwar Period and Their Conservation at the Museum of Ethnology and World Cultures of Barcelona

During the early postwar years, thousands of objects safeguarded by the Republic were taken over by the Franco regime through the Servicio Nacional de Defensa del Patrimonio Artístico Nacional (National Service for the Defense of National Artistic Heritage), a militarized service that claimed credit for the protection and return of cultural heritage. The aim of this article, the result of provenance research, is to present the facts, key figures, and contexts surrounding the deposit of a group of ethnological objects at the Museum of Industries and Popular Arts of Barcelona, and to reflect on the impact that the Spanish Civil War had on cultural heritage and on the shaping of the museum.

On December 14, 1942, just a few months after the first room of the MIAP opened to the public, the Acta de depósito de objetos de joyería que han sido cedidos por este Servicio al Museo Municipal de Industrias y Artes Populares instalado en uno de los edificios del Pueblo Español de Montjuich (Record of deposit of jewelry objects that have been transferred by this Service to the Municipal Museum of Industries and Popular Arts located in one of the buildings of the Spanish Village of Montjuïc) was signed. The act was signed by Luís Monreal Tejada and Agustí Duran i Sanpere and stamped with the logo of the Historical Archive. It is a 12-page document that provides a detailed list of all the objects deposited in the museum “to enrich the collections of this recently created Museum.” It also states that the pieces had previously been exhibited to the public “at the Palacio de la Caja de Pensiones of the Exhibition without having found, to date, an owner.”

The act listed a total of 87 items, numbered between 39,108 and 86,689. It is important to note that this numbering was originally created in the seizure records of the Servei de Patrimoni Històric Artístic de Catalunya (SPHAC) of the Republican Generalitat, and was later continued by the numbering system established by the SDPAN. Specifically, the numbering of the seizures carried out by the Generalitat of Catalonia reached number 70,735, and the subsequent numbers were created by the SDPAN to reorganize returns or deposits and to maintain the traceability of each item.

The deposited objects were mostly pieces of jewelry and goldsmithing dated between the 17th and 19th centuries: earrings, pendants, medallions, boxes, brooches, Caravaca crosses, reliquaries, mourning keepsakes, rattles, paintings, enamels, frames, among others, made of metal, silver, iron, glass, and precious stones.

While the act of December 14, 1942, listed 87 objects, just five days earlier, on December 9, 1942, the MIAP itself had created a total of 89 inventory cards describing all the pieces entering the museum and their seizure numbers. It is worth noting that three of the objects listed in the December 14 act (with inventory numbers 49176, 49190, and 49191) do not have corresponding inventory cards, either because they were never created or have not been preserved.

In these cards dated December 9, the origin of the pieces was recorded as the Servicio de Recuperación (Recovery Service), with no mention of the SDPAN. As mentioned, each card included the seizure number of the object, which also appeared in the SDPAN’s act of deposit, along with a new inventory number. Additionally, a third numbering system can be found, introduced later by the Museo de Artes e Industrias Tradicionales y Populares (MAITP), likely created in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Saida Palou Rubio, Universitat de Girona, Institut Català de Recerca en Patrimoni Cultural (ICRPC-CERCA)

Eduard Caballé i Colom, Institut Català de Recerca en Patrimoni Cultural (ICRPC-CERCA)

For more information: https://revistes.uab.cat/periferia/article/view/v30-n1-palou-caballe/1021-pdf-ca

Bibliography: Palou Rubio, S., Caballé Colom, E.(2025).Col·leccions en dipòsit: la cessió d’objectes al Museo de Industrias y Artes Populares de Barcelona durant la postguerra i la seva conservació al Museu Etnològic i de les Cultures del Mon de Barcelona.Perifèria, revista de recerca i formació en antropologia, 30(1), 78-102.