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ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2012

The financial earthquakes of re-cent years that have redrawn themap of Spain’s banking systemhave also produced collateral dam-age: mergers and acquisitionshave reduced the number ofbanks, with a further contractionlikely in the coming years. Amongthe many assets of Spain’s lendersto be considered during a mergerare art collections built up overthe last two decades.

In the same way that few re-gional governments could resistthe temptation to build new artgalleries, a great many banks de-cided that they would establishtheir own art collections. In thecase of the cajas, or savings banks,thesewere often away of support-ing local artists, while at the sametime establishing collections thatmany major galleries would envy.The initial ideawas simply to deco-rate the offices of bank directorswith works from the great andgood of yesterday and today. Butlittle by little, these collectionstook on a life of their own.

The collection built up by Ban-co Santander provides an illustra-tion of how a policy of mergersand acquisitions brings with it theresponsibilities of a major art col-lection. With more than 1,000works dating back to the 18th cen-tury, among them more than ahandful of masterpieces, Santand-er’s current collection was builton the basis of that of BancoUrquijo, a large part ofwhich Ban-co Central Hispano bought in the1980s and which in turn then be-came Santander’s when it swal-lowed up BCH. The collection al-ready included work by Tàpies, ElPaso, and Guerrero, along with animpressive array of tapestries.

Banco Urquijo was among thefirst Spanish banks to seriously col-lect art. In 1988, its collection wasvalued by Sotheby’s at more thansix billion pesetas (around 36 mil-

lion euros.) Among the most cele-brated pieces was Goya’s Portraitof the Count of Floridablanca,which subsequently joined theBank of Spain’s collection of Goyaportraits.

Rosario LópezMerás, the headof the Santander Foundation’s cul-tural projects, points to some ofthe masterpieces spread acrossSpain’s banks and cajas, includingBanco de Granada’s The VirginChild by Zurbarán and a collectionof priceless coins owned by Bancode Jerez. Santander boasts worksby El Greco, Cranach, Van Dyck,Sorolla, Casas, Picasso, andMiquel Barceló.

Spain’s other leading bank,BBVA, also has an impressive artcollection of around 1,000 works

acquired byBancoBilbao andBan-co Vizcaya before they merged in1988 to become BBV. When itmergedwithArgentaria in 1999, itacquired the savings bank’s collec-tion of 428 works of art.

Banco Bilbao had specializedin Flemish artists for many years,while Banco Vizcaya focusedmainly on contemporaryworks. It

is difficult to put a price on thecollection, but for insurance pur-poses, the figure generally accept-ed is 50 million euros. The stellarpiece in the collection is unques-tionably Goya’s portrait of DonPantaleón Pérez de Nenin, paintedin 1808. It is currently valued atfive million euros, and was pur-chased by Banco Exterior in 1961

— which in turn was bought byArgentaria in 1998. The work ispart of a collection that can usual-ly be seen at the Palace of theMar-quis of Salamanca, in Madrid,when it is not out on loan to galler-ies around the world.

La Caixa’s collection tells a dif-ferent story, says Nimfa Bisbe theheadof the savings bank’s contem-porary art collection, pointing outthat its acquisitions and mergershave not addedmuch to its pool ofpaintings, sculptures and otherworks. La Caixa’s collection waslargely put together byMaría Cor-ral, a former director of the ReinaSofía museum in Madrid, and iswidely considered among themost representative of artistictrends over the last 50 years. Thecollection includes works byBruce Nauman, Joseph Beuys,Mario Merz and Juan Muñoz.

La Caixa’s ambitious approachto collecting was followed bymany smaller savings banks, par-ticularly during the boom years ofthe mid-1990s up until the col-lapse of the property market in2008, a situation that meansmany of these institutions nowface an uncertain future. That oftheir collections has still to be de-cided; they are either taken overby the state, or mergedwith otherentities that may not be in a posi-tion to continue their exhibitionand maintenance. Notable amongthese is the collection of the Cajade Ahorros del Mediterráneo. Thesavings bank, whichwasmisman-aged through political interfer-ence, has just been bought by Ban-co Sabadell, which has yet to saywhat it intends to do with its im-pressive art collection.

Banking on artThe current crisis will bring about further mergers and acquisitions in thefinancial sector. Many lenders still have major collections among their assets

E Banco Santander. Thebank run by Emilio Botín canboast around 1,000masterpieces from thelender’s own collection andthat of Banco Urquijo,including works from the 19thand 20th centuries. Anoutstanding component are30 canvases by José GutiérrezSolana.

E BBVA. The lender’scollection is the result of aseries of some 150 mergersand acquisitions betweencajas and banks. The mergerwith Argentaria in 1999boosted the collection withthe inclusion of 428masterpieces.

E La Caixa. The Catalaninstitution’s collection, puttogether by a former directorof the Reina Sofía museum ofmodern art in the early1980s, has been theinspiration for many othersavings banks.

The big threeÁNGELES GARCÍAMadrid

Charles II in Hunting Costume, by Goya, is part of the BBVA collection. / b. p.

The value of BBVA’scollection isestimated at around50 million euros

La Caixa’s is themost representativeof artistic trends overthe last 50 years

Two works by El Greco dominate one of the exhibition rooms at Banco Santander’s complex at Boadilla del Monte, outside Madrid. / bernardo pérez