Franco’s heirs have begun selling the items they took from the Pajo de Meires in an auction at Madrid’s Magna Art auction. We are not talking about the beloved Salvat library. Bidding at this Vanity Fair of 689 lots with starting prices between 20 and 5,000 euros, an “immoral spectacle” that is not immortal, exceeded expectations and starting prices with every lot sold.
The first session, Tuesday 27, runs from 5pm to 11:30pm. 250 lots were offered for 247,500 euros, without deduction of house commission. By the end of the second, the collection had exceeded 460,000 and there were still pieces to come out. From the 1936 coup against the democratic government of the Second Republic until his death in 1975, the memory of the Spanish soldier and dictator is highly valued. Fans digging through history’s trash can are lucky.
What and how much was sold. Almost everything that caught our attention had Franco in the catalog or dedication:
- Color family photos From Franco, Carmen Polo and their daughter: from 80 to 2,250 euros. It was a lot of 228.
- Zamindar’s oil Dedicated to Carmen Franco by the Countess of Morata de Jalon: from 50 to 6,000, 120 times its starting value.
- Tapestry with Franco shield: 850 to 9,000 euros according to elDiario.es and 9,500 according to El País. A telephone buyer and another from outside Spain disputed this.
- Franco’s briefcaseEngraved with his title as leader and chief of the Falange: from 350 to 19,000 euros. It was a lot of 465.
- “Carmencita” Silver Jewelry Box: 120 to 14,000.
- Talvera Jag: 350 to 10,000.
- Two wooden “child martyrs”: 120 to 5,000.
- 1937 Compostela Chapter Plaque: 180 to 1,900. He dedicated it to Franco in the middle of the civil war.
Birds and other rare things. He also has his fair share of auctions. A 20-centimeter silver metal bird went from 90 to 275 euros after a close bid, and among the birds of prey attendees joked that the “bird” resisted. 550 for an 18th century Indian pottery. An assistant valued it at at least 3,000 and concluded that souvenirs were bought there, not antiques. The catalog also featured a photo of the Plaza de Oriente crowd in 1975, after the regime’s last execution, to pay 500 euros.
Prices were already inflated. Ahead of the auction, early online bidding has already triggered several lots. According to elDiario.es, the house itself assumed that the final price would be much higher. On the day of the auction, an employee explained that ten times more people than usual were online. About twenty phone lines, international platform buyers and servers had problems.
Who was bidding? The profile was varied. Magna staff admitted to elDiario.es that there had been Francoist declarations, and also collectors and people interested in Spain’s history. At the door, some attendees avoided the press and others declared themselves fans of the dictator. A woman said she was going for a souvenir that all Spaniards should have; Another, who was looking for peace things unrelated to Franco. In its chronicle, El País described an older audience and several participants as having treated the family as if they had stolen it. oh
What the auction house says. The director, José Miguel Carrillo de Albornoz, defended that it was a normal bid like any other. Before the auction, he assured that the important thing was in the palace itself. The catalog, without mentioning the Civil War or criminal coups, argued that the “marked historical character” of the pieces made them worth more than their intrinsic value. One of the memorial organizations replied that the phrase in the catalog according to which it “belonged” to Francos for decades is false, something that they say has been proven documentaryly and judicially.
How we got here. To try to make it a little clearer, here’s a very brief summary of the facts, in context:
Whatever the memoirists want. The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory has asked the presidency to promote a precautionary moratorium through the attorney general’s office until the family proves ownership of each piece. The Commission for the Restoration of A Coruña’s Historical Monuments has been asking the Xunta and the government for weeks to verify whether any part can remain in the public domain.
There is a precedent: the two sculptures from the Portico of Glory that ended up in Pajo and were ordered by the Supreme Court to return to Santiago. The auction went as planned but, according to the press, many of the objects were already in Meires when it belonged to Emilia Pardo Bajan.
What is left? By the end of the second session there was still much left to do. The heirs defend that they are selling out the justice they left behind, and their critics that they are enriched by the memory of the dictatorship. Half a century after the dictator’s death, there is a market for Franco memorabilia that has paid 14,000 euros for a small silver box.
Picture | Catalog Shot, Magna Art Auction
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