In a court in the United States, the future of a Pissarro, owned by the Thyssen Museum, which has been claimed for years by the heirs of Lily Cassirer, is being settled. It is one of the thousands of works looted by the Nazis during World War II, whose ownership is ruled by courts around the world. In Spain, the Polish Government and the heirs of the Goluchów Castle collection claim for our country ‘Mater Dolorosa’ and ‘Ecce Homo’, attributed to Dirk Bouts. Seized by the Nazis in 1941, they were acquired, in good faith, in 1994 by the Pontevedra Museum. But artistic seizures did not only occur during Nazism. There were also them in the Franco regime, as Arturo Colorado Castellary addresses in ‘Art, spoils of war. Plunder and diaspora in the post-Franco war’. Among the many collections discussed in this book is that of the Basque businessman Ramón de la Sota y Llano. In 1937, a year after his death, almost 300 works from his outstanding art collection were seized by the Francoist army at his family residence, the Palacio de Ibaigane, in Bilbao, thanks to the proceedings issued by the Special Court of Political Responsibilities. A year after his death, a sanction of one hundred million pesetas was imposed on him, the highest fine imposed during the Franco regime. In 1938, the General Captaincy of Burgos resolved said file against De la Sota: a sanction of one hundred million pesetas was imposed on him , the highest fine imposed during the Franco regime, apart from others to different members of the family. Among the reasons alleged, there are accusations of all kinds to instrumentalize this plunder: that he sent a telegram to the president of the United States congratulating him on the independence of Cuba, that he was present at a meeting in Guernica where a Spanish flag was trampled on in 1914… However, the motivation was political: the family launched and financed Basque nationalism. The seized paintings were transferred to Burgos and from there they passed to different levels of the State. Some decorated the offices of various ministers of the regime. It is said that a ‘Piedad’ by Morales hung in that of Serrano Suñer in the Ministry of the Interior. The efforts made by the De la Sota family in the 40s and 50s achieved the return of some. Ramón de la Sota Aburto, son of De la Sota y Llano, while in exile donated paintings to various museums in the Basque Country, including works by Goya, El Greco and Morales’s ‘Piedad’. But it was necessary to wait until 1969, when, in compliance with the Pardon Decree of 1966, a judicial order from the special magistrate-judge for the return of deposits constituted by political responsibilities ordered the State Administration to return the seized works. The family also recovered the Ibaigane Palace. Of course, the State claimed a millionaire debt with the Treasury, which was paid in 1982, together with what remained to be paid from the fines. In 2018 one of the heirs of the De la Sota family casually located one of the lost works on the Paradores de Turismo website. A third of the works disappeared, some are still unaccounted for. Thus, the trail ‘Portrait of Queen María Cristina’, attributed to Vicente López, and ‘Portrait of a Knight’, attributed to Frans Pourbus, were lost. Until in 2018 one of the heirs of the De la Sota family casually located the latter on the Paradores de Turismo website. It was part of the collection of this body, which did not know the origin of the works. In 2015 they were part of the exhibition that the Fundación Mapfre dedicated to the Paradores de Turismo funds at its headquarters in Madrid. The family hired the services of Ramón y Cajal Abogados to claim the works from Turespaña. There was no lawsuit, but an extrajudicial claim, which had not prescribed. In it, it was alleged that “the State Administration has never possessed the paintings as the owner, but as a mere ‘de facto’ depositary. He has never been the owner of a possession ‘al usucapionem’, since he did not hold a property title, dation, transfer, adjudication or assignment of ownership that justified it ». According to the Civil Code, “the only possession situation suitable for acquiring the property by usucapion is that it has not been acquired violently.” After the favorable report from the State Attorney General’s Office, the Secretary of State for Tourism and President of Turespaña, Fernando Valdés, admitted the claim of the heirs as owners of the works. The return certificate was signed on June 17 at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, where they will be deposited on loan for two years for study and exhibition. The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, will preside over the opening of the exhibition of these paintings on September 2. The return of it, 85 years later, sets a historical precedent in the restitution of works seized in the Civil War. Businessman, politician and collector Ramón de la Sota y Llano (Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, 1857-Guecho, Vizcaya, 1936) graduated in Law from the University of Madrid. He was a businessman who amassed a great fortune from mining, iron exports and, especially, shipping companies. He founded Euskalduna Shipyards. He participated in the founding of Banco del Comercio. Member of the Basque Nationalist Party, in 1918 he was elected deputy to the Cortes. Marquis of Llano, King George V gave him a knighthood. He hoarded one of the most important art collections in Spain. He had thirteen children.
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