King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia on Thursday attended the first exhibition of a Francisco Goya's painting at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba.
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The piece, which was painted around 1815, will be exposed to the public at the Universal Art Building as part of the tributes to the 500 years of the founding of the Havana city.
"Transporting paintings is very difficult and complex, but the anniversary of the city deserved it," the director of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba Jorge Fernandez said.
Goya's work "could have an important dialogue with the museum's own collection," Fernandez said and recalled the artist's role in the creation of the San Alejandro Art Academy.
Los Reyes, en el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana donde se expone el autorretrato de Goya, pintado por el autor zaragozano en 1815, y cedido temporalmente por el Museo Nacional del Prado @museodelprado @maecgob @embespcuba https://t.co/4F3gUZudDt pic.twitter.com/DRKu9IOVfl
— Casa de S.M. el Rey (@CasaReal) November 14, 2019
Los Reyes, in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana where Goya's self-portrait is exhibited, painted by the author from Zaragoza in 1815, and temporarily assigned by the Museo Nacional del Prado @museodelprado @maecgob @embespcuba https://casareal.es/ES/Actividades
The portrait arrived in Cuba from the Prado Museum whose restrictive loan policy has allowed it to keep most of its collection of works of art intact.
Over the last two decades, Goya's self-portrait has been exposed in the Americas three times, one of them was in the United States.
The Spanish royalty arrived in Cuba on the eve of the celebrations of the five centuries of the foundation of Havana, which was established by the Iberian colonizers on Nov. 16, 1519.
The monarchs, who were received by President Miguel Diaz-Canel, made a courtesy visit to the Communist Party First Secretary Raul Castro.
Cordial encuentro conversamos sobre las positivas relaciones existentes entre Cuba y España, basadas en lazos históricos, familiares y culturales. Expresamos la voluntad mutua de continuar desarrollándolas. #SomosCuba #SomosContinuidad https://t.co/bTREUyhel2 vía @PresidenciaCuba
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) November 13, 2019
Cordial meeting we talked about the positive relations between Cuba and Spain, based on historical, family and cultural ties. We express the mutual will to continue developing them. #SomosCuba #SomosContinuidad https://presidencia.gob.cu/es/noticias/recibio-diaz-canel-a-su-majestad-el-rey-de-espana/ via @PresidenciaCuba
Spain's royalty granted the Havana's historian Eusebio Leal with the highest honor of the Crown, the Great Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Carlos III.