Picasso's "Guernica" sparks row between Spain and Basques

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Madrid (dpa) - At a time when Spain is hoping to launch a peace process to solve the four-decade Basque conflict, a dispute has erupted between the Spanish and Basque authorities over Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," his most famous painting, which the Basques regard as a national symbol.

The Basque regional government has asked to borrow the masterpiece from Madrid for an exhibition in Bilbao to mark the 70th anniversary next year of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by Nazi Germany in support of General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish government, however, says the "Guernica" is too damaged to make another trip, having travelled to dozens of exhibitions since Picasso created it for the 1937 Paris World Fair.

The Basques, who already had sought in vain to borrow the painting for the inauguration of Bilbao's Guggenheim art museum a decade ago, suspect its fragility is partly an excuse to make sure its presence will not boost Basque nationalist feelings.

Modern transport conditions guarantee that the canvas will not deteriorate, Basque government spokeswoman Miren Azkarate said, but Culture Minister Carmen Calvo vowed the "Guernica" will "not leave the Reina Sofia" modern art museum, which houses it.

Officially, the "Guernica" affair has nothing to do with hopes of ending the Basque conflict following a recent ceasefire declaration by the separatist group ETA, which has killed more than 800 people in its campaign for a sovereign Basque state since 1968.

Yet in practice, Picasso's painting cannot be separated entirely from politics, because Guernica of less than 20,000 residents is the spiritual capital of the Basques, where representatives of Spanish kings used to swear to respect Basque autonomy.

On April 26, 1937, the German Condor Legion levelled Guernica, killing about 1,500 civilians in an act that caused international outrage and inspired Picasso to paint his black-and-white cubist "cry for peace and freedom," as Azkarate described it.

Measuring 7.76 x 3.49 metres, the canvas depicting suffering people and animals in the midst of war and chaos can also be interpreted as symbolizing Basque resistance to the 1939-75 Franco dictatorship, which oppressed Basque language and culture.

The Spanish government's opposition to moving the painting "fits in badly with the times and roads of peace and freedom we want to take," Azkarate said in an apparent reference to the ETA ceasefire.

Picasso did not want the "Guernica" to return to Spain as long as Franco ruled, and the work only came home in 1981 from New York's Museum of Modern Art.

It has made some 40 trips to exhibitions in places ranging from Scandinavia to Britain, being rolled and unrolled until the canvas has become cracked and paint has flaked off.

The Basques had hoped to make the "Guernica" the big attraction of the inauguration of the Guggenheim art museum in 1997, but the Spanish government called a symposium of international experts who said the painting was in too poor shape to move.

The Basque region's ruling nationalist party PNV has now asked two foreign experts to inform the Senate about the state of the "Guernica" to "avoid suspicions" of partiality, Basque senators said.

Spain has not only refused requests from the Basques, but also from Japan and France to borrow the "Guernica."

"I do not play politics with pieces of Spanish public heritage," Calvo said, arguing that Picasso did not intend the "Guernica" to be a "localist symbol" but "a harsh symbol of the tragedy of war."