Government expands art collection with 431 acquisitions 

The Catalan Department of Culture has continued to increase acquisitions for the National Art Collection. A total of 431 acquisitions have been made, amounting to 23,090 artworks and archives, with a total investment of just over €3.5 million last year. 

Additionally, the National Collection has received 152 donations, with 11,840 objects. 

The Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández, emphasized during a press conference on Wednesday during the unveiling of the new acquisitions that the national collection is a "priority," as it should allow society to "self-identify as a collective." 

The department has allocated €3.5 million to complete Catalonia’s public collections and make them available to the public through archives, libraries, and museums across the territory. 

The items acquired in 2024 span from the 6th century BCE to the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on the 20th century and the early modern period (16th-18th centuries). 

The collection includes a diverse range of Catalan cultural heritage, including paintings, sculptures, altarpieces, coins, scientific and technical objects, documentary and bibliographic materials, and graphic works. 

Some of the most notable purchases in this category include the Catalan-made car Nacional Pescara, the painting La família by Olga Sacharoff, Retrat de Manolita Piña by Joaquín Torres García, three sculptures by Ismael Smith, the tapestry Pájaro-Cometa by Aurèlia Muñoz, and the engraving Saint Jerome in a Dark Room by Rembrandt.