The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum presents the works restored during 2017, thanks to the Iberdrola-Museum Programme. This is a long standing and close collaboration between the Museum and Iberdrola through its Foundation in Spain.

The programme has funded work on a total of 37 pieces from the museum’s collection in 2017.

The presentation involved the participation of Miguel Zugaza director of the Museum, María José Ruiz-Ozaita head of the Museum’s Conservation and Restoration Department and Ramón Castresana, director of the Iberdrola Foundation, who highlighted the valuable work carried out by the Museum’s Restoration Workshop.

The programme has funded work on a total of 37 pieces from the museum’s collection in 2017. The most important pieces include: Plato (c. 1500) by Alfar de Manises (Valencia); The Immaculate Conception (c. 1665) by José Antolinez; Monument to Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga by Francisco Durrio; Bilbao landscape. The Sendeja (c. 1917) by Aurelio Arteta; 13 enamels by Ricardo Arrué and Ramiro Arrué -among them, Still Life (1925), Nude, and Medusa (1920)-; Preaching of San Pedro and San Pedro and San Pablo before the Judge of Pedro Serra; Still Life (third quarter of 17th century) by Jan van Kessel I; Piety at the Foot of the Cross by Luisa “The Gypsy” Roldan; Punta de Saint Jean. Cap Ferrat (last third of the 19th century) by Martín Rico; Meeting Place IV (1973) by Eduardo Chillida; Untitled (1988-1989) by Ricardo Catania -presented for the first time in 2017 since its donation this year-; and To the Sleeping Part (1993) by Pello Irazu. Work has also continued on the restoration of twelve drawings from the late nineteenth century by Bilbao-born artist Roberto Laplaza, all made with charcoal, pencil and ink on paper.

The Iberdrola-Museum programme supports three lines of work carried out by the Conservation and Restoration, and Education and Cultural Action departments:

1. The Conservation and Restoration programme, which finances the annual treatment of a series of art works from the museum’s permanent collection.
2. The Iberdrola-Museum grant to promote education and research in the field of the conservation and restoration of art works.
3. Educational activities specifically aimed at introducing the museum’s collection to members of the public with special needs due to visual or cognitive disabilities, or in social insertion programmes.