Madrid Opens Long-Awaited Galería de las Colecciones Reales

Madrid's new Galería de las Colecciones Reales opens on June 29, 2023, after nearly a decade of anticipation. The 40,000-square-meter museum, built between 2008 and 2015 beside the Royal Palace, was designed by architects Emilio Tuñón and the late Luis Moreno Mansilla. The building, made of granite, concrete, and oak, echoes the nearby 18th-century Royal Palace. The gallery showcases around 650 pieces from the Spanish royal collections, managed by Patrimonio Nacional, an institution founded in the 1930s to oversee artistic and historical assets formerly owned by the crown. Director Leticia Ruiz, former curator at the Prado, and president Ana de la Cueva lead the institution. The collection spans paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries, clocks, jewelry, ceramics, arms, maps, and decorative arts, illustrating the link between art and power. Highlights include Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes," Velázquez's unfinished "White Horse," a Bernini model for the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and a group sculpture by Luisa Roldán. The museum is organized over three descending floors: the first dedicated to the Habsburg dynasty (with a preamble on the Trastámara and Isabella of Castile), the second to the Bourbons. A temporary exhibition "In Movement" runs until June 2024, featuring historic vehicles and carriages. The museum aims to create a new cultural axis in central Madrid, complementing the Prado Museum and other nearby sites.