The collector who acquired an unpublished altarpiece by the Renaissance painter Pere Mates in a subhasta to Barcelona wishes to transfer it to the Girona Art Museum. In mid-February, the La Suite auction house in Barcelona auctioned an altarpiece attributed to Mates, an of the most prominent Renaissance painters in the country and especially in Gironaowned by a French collector. It was bought by the businessman and cultural patron Joan-Artur Roura i Comas with the intention, if the management of the museum so wishes, that it be exhibited in the rooms of the Girona museum.
For years, Roura has been dedicated to acquiring artistic pieces of Catalan origin that are abroad in order to return them to Catalonia and give them to museums. He has works in the Museu de Lleida and the Episcopal Museum in Vic, in addition to the Museu de l’Empordà in Figueres, to whom he lent two surrealist oils from his collection in 2017.
The collector assures that his will is “to recover Catalan art that is outside the country”. “My family has always been conservators of art, especially Catalan, and they instilled in me a love for painting and music from an early age. The trips I have made abroad have awakened in me a great sensitivity to recover Catalan works that, due to wars or looting, have escaped us from the country”, he explains.
«When you see our works exhibited in the United States or Europe, in museums like the Louvre, you appreciate it, because they have been preserved in the best conditions and are accessible to visitors. I it gives you satisfaction, but at the same time, you regret that this did not happen in Catalonia. Now there is much more care, but years ago the institutions were not sensitive enough and allowed the works to leave the country, and now I try, within my possibilities, that some of these can return”, explains Roura i Comas .
That is why for years he has been traveling around Europe, at fairs, markets and auctions, keeping an eye out for Catalan art that goes up for sale. As a result of this interest, in 2021 he acquired the 15th century painting by Francesc Solives at an auction in Paris Mother of God, the Child and Saint Annewhat ceded to the Museum of Lleida. Also a piece by the painter Perot Gascó, from the 16th century, which it is now exhibited at the Episcopal Museum of Vicwith whom he is preparing an “important transfer” of more works.
In the case of the Pere Mates altarpiece, he bought it at an auction from a private French collection, and already thinking of the Girona museum, where the bulk of the painter’s work is kept. “When I heard that it was being put up for auction in Barcelona, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to be able to contribute it, if they so wish, to the Girona Art Museum, which I think is the best place it can be”, he explains Joan-Artur Roura and Comas.
At the moment, he indicates, the person who manages his art collection, Mia Alsina, he has contacted the management of the museum offering the work and is now awaiting a response. “I really want them to be interested”, explains the collector, who is one of the Friends of the Girona Art Museum and has collaborated with the museum and the organization on other occasions, such as in 2011, with the ‘impulse of a solidarity auction in favor of Amics de la Bressola, “always looking for twinning between institutions and entities”.
In fact, one of the meetings he has had with its director, Carme Clusellas, over the last few years, was precisely to discuss a particularly brave exhibition that the Art Museum dedicated to falsification from the ‘acquisition of three false Renaissance tables attributed to Mates, true fakes The art of deception. “It was an excellent exhibition, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to congratulate it”, he explains.
Two surrealist oils in Figueres
If the transfer of Pere Mates comes to fruition, it would not be the first agreement between the Barcelona collector of Emporda origin and a Girona museum, since in 2017 he deposited two surrealist oils, The unknown beach by Ángel Planells and bow masks by Joan Massanet, at the Empordà Museum.
“I had previously left them for a major exhibition on surrealism in Catalonia at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, curated by Alicia Viñas, former director of the Museu de l’Empordà. Upon checking the success of the exhibition and seeing the impact it had on visitors, I wanted to transfer the works to the Figueres museum so that Catalan citizens could enjoy them as the Russians had done before“, Explain.
“At the moment, they are ceded to museums, however my will is that they end up being donations, that they go into their collections whenever they are exposed, that they don’t end up in the warehouseso that the public can enjoy them”, says the collector, who likes to publicize these sales “to raise awareness in society, because there are families who have works of art of a certain value and do not think about the museums”.
“If there is a healthy economic situation, I think that the duty of those of us who love culture is to favor museums, because there are funds and infrastructure in the administration that do not always reach everything”, continues the patron, who also forms part of the board of the Maria Canals International Piano Competition and finances a prize and a concert at the Ateneu Barcelonès.
Pere Mates is considered one of the most representative authors of the Catalan Renaissance. Main painter of an important family of artists originally from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, he is documented for the first time in 1512 and dies in 1558. His workshop carried out an important painting activity in the lands of the diocese of Gironawith work for the cathedral and the church of Sant Nicolau de Girona, for the monasteries of Sant Pere de Rodes or Sant Llorenç del Mont, and for parishes such as Roses, Vilablareix, Vilamarí, Verges, Segueró or Montagut.
The altarpiece attributed to Mates acquired by Roura i Comas, certified by the art historian Albert Velasco, it came from a French private collection. It is a predella (bench of an altarpiece) painted around 1525divided into five compartments.
It depicts Christ, flanked by the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, with the Arma Christi in the background. In the other four spaces, Saint Peter, Saint Sebastian, Saint Margaret and Saint Christopher are represented. AC Girona