Mexico’s art community calls for greater transparency in management of treasured collection – The Art Newspaper

The future of the Gelman Collection, one of the world’s most significant collections of 20th-century Mexican art, is under increasing scrutiny after 350 cultural professionals signed an open letter urging Mexican cultural authorities to be more transparent and abide by heritage laws in the management of the cultural treasures. The open letter follows last month’s announcement that the collection—assembled by Jacques and Natasha Gelman and including 18 works by Frida Kahlo—had been acquired by the Monterrey-based Zambrano family in 2023. Under the agreement, the Spanish bank will now oversee “the conservation, research and exhibition” of the newly re-branded Gelman Santander Collection, including 160 works.

Though privately owned, the collection is complex: 30 works are national artistic monuments under Mexican law, requiring oversight by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL). Signatories, including the curator Cuauhtémoc Medina and the artists Mónica Meyer and Teresa Margolles, emphasise that Kahlo’s paintings are the most strictly regulated, prompting calls for transparency.

Information about the Gelman Santander Collection’s future has emerged in fragments. After initially announcing a summer exhibition at Faro Santander, the bank’s new art space in Cantabria, Spain, followed by an international iteration, news emerged that 68 works from the collection would first be displayed at Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno. That ongoing exhibition (original due to run until May, now extended until July) features ten Kahlo paintings, including the iconic Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943) and Self-Portrait with Necklace (1933). The collection was last shown in Mexico 18 years ago.

Exhibitions and export restrictions

The collection’s most recent public display was at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2023. For years, it was the subject of controversy due to curator Robert R. Littman’s decision-making. He had been Natasha Gelman’s adviser, when she died in 1998 and served as the executor of her will—which reportedly indicated that the collection should remain in Mexico.

While the ongoing exhibition in Mexico was celebrated, it raised concerns about the protected status of certain works in the collection, including ten pieces each by Kahlo and Diego Rivera, seven by José Clemente Orozco, two by María Izquierdo and one by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Mexican law stipulates differing degrees of control over these works. Some, like those by Rivera and Orozco, may be permanently exported for exhibition, whereas works by Kahlo are subject to stricter controls.

“In Kahlo’s case, the prohibition of permanent export is definitive, with temporary exports allowed for reasonable timeframes,” says Eduardo Pizarro, a partner at the Mexico City-based firm SMPS Legal. “Such agreements do not pose problems as long as they respect heritage laws.”

Export permits are typically valid for one or two years, but on 16 February, INBAL’s director Alejandra de la Paz told Excelsior that a renewable five-year loan was planned. The signatories of the open letter are not questioning the ownership of the Gelman Santander Collection, but seeking guarantees of prioritizing its display in Mexico.

“What we are asking is transparency from INBAL regarding the export permits and to prioritise and renegotiate the works’ more permanent exhibition in a public or private institution in Mexico,” says Francisco Berzunza, a historian and member of the collective Defensa de la Colección Gelman, the group that organised the letter. “An extended loan could endanger Kahlo’s legacy as other collectors have unsuccessfully tried to relocate Kahlo’s works.”

The letter also questions the characterisation of the collection’s display at Faro Santander, by that institution’s director Daniel Vega, as “permanent yet dynamic”, and of heritage law as “flexible” and “subject to exceptions for conservation purposes”. At the same January press conference announcing Banco Santander’s stewardship of the collection, Vega also stressed full compliance with Mexican law.

In a statement posted on INBAL’s X account on 11 March, the agency emphasised that it was acting in accordance with heritage law, under which it grants temporary export permits. It added: “INBAL will not authorise Kahlo’s works’ permanent export or any other.”

Pressure intensified following the publication in e-flux of another open letter organised by Defensa de la Colección Gelman on 18 March, addressed to Banco Santander and the leaders of European museums that will soon host exhibitions of Kahlo’s works—including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo.

“We respect the protection of cultural heritage and value the close and open dialogue we have with the responsible cultural authorities in Mexico,” a spokesperson for the Fondation Beyeler tells The Art Newspaper. “The National Museum of Norway has great respect and understanding for the strong commitment to Mexican cultural heritage,” Ingrid Røynesdal, the museum’s director, said in a statement. Representatives for the Neue Nationalgalerie did not comment.

“The agreement does not imply the collection’s acquisition or relocation, which remains owned by the Zambrano family, and respects Mexican heritage law,” reads a 23 March statement by Banco Santander. “We reiterate it is the owners’ will and our commitment to return the collection to Mexico after the temporary export.” The Art Newspaper contacted both INBAL and Santander, but both declined to comment beyond their prior public statements.

Clamouring for Kahlos

Despite the need to navigate Mexican heritage laws, institutional interest in Kahlo’s work has never been greater. “There is a waiting list of museums wanting to show works from the collection,” Borja Baselga, the director of Fundación Santander, said at the January press conference.

“Scarcity is a factor in Kahlo’s work, and these works are masterpieces,” Berzunza says. He adds that most of her works are owned by institutions and private collections: “The Mexican state only owns one Kahlo self-portrait.”

The controversy over the destiny of the Gelman Santander Collection has even reached the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, who said at a 25 March press conference: “Our wish is for it to stay in Mexico—we should speak to those who have it.”

More details of the agreement between the Zambrano family, Banco Santander and Mexican authorities emerged on 29 March, when the Mexican newspaper Reforma reported reviewing the 7 January agreement between the three parties confirming the “five-year renewable loan”. A source close to the Zambrano family told Reforma that their goal is also to exhibit the works in Mexico.

According to the agreement, per additional reporting by Proceso, subject to renewals the collection will not return to Mexico until 30 September 2030, to “avoid, as far as possible, periodic and recurrent returns, given the risks of handling and transport that could damage the works”.

At a press conference on Monday (30 March), the culture minister Claudia Curiel stressed the importance of international movement, stating that the collection will return in 2028, as required by “customs-related issues,” and that its exhibition in Mexico is planned. No specific date was shared. She also announced that the Museo de Arte Moderno’s exhibition of works from the Gelman Santander Collection will continue through July, until after the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup.

But concerns remain in the Mexican cultural community. “This perverts the law; the contract opens the unprecedented possibility of extending the works’ export indefinitely,” Berzunza says. “Why did authorities sign this agreement?”