Catalan museum proposes 17 November start for moving Sijena paintings to Aragon

A proposed start date

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) has sent the Aragon government a proposed timetable and work plan for moving the secular paintings from the Santa María de Sijena monastery in Huesca. The museum announced the proposal on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, and wants the work to begin on Tuesday, 17 November. The MNAC said it had rescheduled the dismantling, packing and transport work after receiving authorization from the Huesca Heritage Commission, a job originally planned for July. The museum has argued that these paintings do not carry the conservation problems or technical obstacles that affect the mural works still in dispute, and that they were not burned in the 1936 fire.

Why the move was delayed

Aragon halted the July plan, saying the full technical project was still missing. Since then, the regional government has installed a system of combs in the monastery's dormitory area, where the paintings are due to be placed. According to La Vanguardia, Aragon has invested six million euros in rehabilitating and preparing the monastery for the return of the works. El Periódico reports that Aragon later set 19 October as the date for the move, which the museum said rested on a provisional calendar and an outdated plan. Earlier, Aragon's vice president Mar Vaquero had announced arrival on Thursday, 5 November, a date the MNAC rejected as outdated.

The panels and the contract

The group consists of eight rigid panels, which La Razón describes as 12th-century compositions that once formed a continuous frieze in a room between the church and the cloister. Their subjects include a deer eating fruit, a lion holding a naked man, a naval battle and a kneeling knight before an enthroned lady. El Periódico reports that the MNAC awarded the transfer by tender to SIT Proyectos, Diseño y Conservación S.L., based in Coslada in the Madrid province, for 62,508.29 euros, the only bid submitted. The museum must cover that cost itself. La Razón gives a base budget with VAT of 81,527.14 euros and says the operation could run for four weeks.

SIT contract (El Periódico)62,508.29

Base budget with VAT (La Razón)81,527.14

SIT contract (El Periódico)

62508.29 EUR

Base budget with VAT (La Razón)

81527.14 EUR

Data from the article text

Timing and what comes next

El País says the company needs about two weeks from taking the paintings down in the exhibition room to unloading them inside the monastery, so the move should finish in the first or second week of December. La Vanguardia puts arrival in the first week of December. The same report says the last day to view the paintings in Barcelona would be 16 November, provided Aragon raises no objection to the calendar. The works are currently on display in Room 17 of the Palau Nacional, the museum's seat, which the museum director Pepe Serra oversees. Aragon's government has said it had not received official communication from the museum and therefore declined to assess the proposal.