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Museo de Arte de Ponce Announces El Greco to Goya: Masterpieces from the Prado Museum

Museo de Arte de Ponce and Banco Santander announced the exhibit El Greco to Goya: Masterpieces from the Prado Museum, a selection of 25 paintings from the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. This prominent exhibit, which includes works by renowned artists such as Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zurbarán, will be open to the public at Museo de Arte de Ponce from March 25 to July 9, 2012.

The Prado’s director for conservation and research, Dr. Gabriele Finaldi, visited Puerto Rico for the announcement, joining María Luisa Ferré Rangel, president of Museo de Arte de Ponce Board of Trustees, Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the museum’s director and chief operating officer, and Javier Hidalgo Blazquez, chief executive officer and president of Banco Santander de Puerto Rico.

Finaldi, born in London in 1965, is considered one of the world’s leading experts in Spanish and Italian painting, a distinction that has enabled him to organize important international exhibitions and publish insightful studies of painters such as Jusepe de Ribera, Zurbarán, and Velázquez. In 2002, he was named associate director of conservation and research at the Prado Museum, where he spearheads the sweeping reorganization and expansion of the museum’s permanent collection.

El Greco to Goyawas born out of an exchange agreement signed between the two museums in 2008. The goal of the pact is to make the cultures of Spain and Puerto Rico more widely known and appreciated, especially the art works in the collections of the two museums, which are joined by a common goal: to widen knowledge of the human condition through art. María Luisa Ferré Rangel noted that the collaboration between the two museums came at a historic moment, when both institutions were in the process of revitalizing their infrastructure in order to expand their services to the public and better care for and exhibit their artistic treasures. “This remarkable juncture led, in 2009, to a very successful exhibit at the Prado of a show titled Sleeping Beauty: Victorian Painting from the Museo de Arte de Ponce, which allowed the Spanish people and the museum’s visitors to learn about, and recognize, the universal value of our collection. Today it gives us great pleasure to announce the second event stemming from this reciprocal agreement, El Greco to Goya: Masterpieces from the Prado Museum, a truly magnificent exhibit that underscores the historical link between Spain and Puerto Rico.”

The Museo de Arte de Ponce urges everyone to watch for announcements of the many activities to be held before and during this extraordinary exhibition, and to make their reservations in advance for groups and private tours. Entrance to the exhibit is $5.00. For further information, please contact 787-840-1510, got to www.museoarteponce.org, or e-mail [email protected].

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