Frida Kahlo Works Face Export Controversy as Gelman Collection Heads to Spain

Key facts

• The Gelman Collection includes 11 paintings by Frida Kahlo, with Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943) and Diego in My Mind (1943) considered masterpieces.
• The collection is set to be transferred from Mexico to Banco Santander's Faro Santander cultural center in Spain later this year, with a planned return in 2028.
• An open letter published March 18 on e-flux, signed by nearly 400 Mexican cultural figures, claims the move violates national heritage law.
• Mexican law designates Kahlo's works as national cultural monuments that cannot be permanently exported, only temporarily loaned.
• The Zambrano family acquired the collection in 2023 and retains ownership, with management turned over to the Banco Santander Foundation.
• The collection had not been publicly exhibited in Mexico for nearly two decades before going on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City in February 2024.
• The collection includes over 160 20th-century works by artists including Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
• Historian Francisco Berzunza, one of eight authors of the open letter, stated the decree was intended to prevent private collections from leaving the country.