Former culture minister acquitted of disobedience over Sixena artworks

The Catalan High Court has acquitted former minister Lluís Puig of the crime of disobedience for not voluntarily returning 44 artworks to the Sixena Monastery in Aragon during the independence push of 2017.

Puig, currently in Belgium, is a member of parliament for the pro-independence Junts party. 

The pieces were exhibited at the Museu Diocesà in the western city of Lleida, but he did not approve of returning them to the Vilanova de Sixena Monastery in the Aragon region.

The artwork was then returned to Sixena by Spain's Guàrdia Civil in December 2017 while the Spanish executive controlled the regional government under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution.

The prosecutor had requested an almost €6,000 fine for Puig and his predecessor, Santi Vila. Vila will be tried in Barcelona in May.

Several officials from the Department of Culture in 2017 testified in February that Puig wanted to comply with the court order to transfer the works to the Aragonese monastery but wanted to study the "complexity" of the legal situation of the assets in depth beforehand.

During the trial, the prosecutor stated that the works would "probably" have remained in Lleida had Catalonia's sovereignty not been revoked in the wake of the independence push in late 2017.

Puig's lawyer assured that Puig clearly showed a "willingness" to comply with the resolution, but asked for time to study the "complex" issue.

Acting as a private prosecutor, Vilanova de Sixena town council was seeking a €99,000 fine and two years disqualification from public office for Puig. For Vila, it was requesting 11 months in prison and a fine of €162,000, due to the additional charge of usurping judicial powers.

The Sixena dispute

The Cistercian convent of Santa Maria de Sixena was looted during the Spanish Civil War, but some works were rescued and ended up in Catalonia, as the convent was part of the Catalan Diocese of Lleida at the time.

Some frescoes remain at the MNAC in Barcelona, and 44 pieces were exhibited at Lleida's diocesan museum.

During Franco's regime, parishes in Catalan-speaking parts of Aragon were separated from the Diocese of Lleida to join the new Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón.

With the return of democracy to Spain, the Catalan government acquired and cataloged the works, but their Aragonese counterparts demanded their return. The courts ordered the return of the cataloged works to Sixena.

Former culture minister Vila opposed the return, and Puig, who took over as minister in early July 2017, also failed to order their return.

Despite appeals and opposition from the Catalan government, Spain's Guardia Civil entered the Lleida museum on the morning of December 11, 2017, carrying out the judicial order by force.

At that time, Catalonia was in disarray, with no interim government after Spain's application of Article 155, which had imposed direct rule, sacked the government, and called elections for late December 2017.