A grand Neo-Classical building overlooking the Bay of Santander and the Cantabrian mountains in north-western Spain is to become the new home of a 1,000-piece collection including works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Vel\u00e1squez, Titian, Rubens, Goya and Picasso.<\/p>\n
The new Faro Santander museum opens on 8 September to show Banco Santander\u2019s collection, which also includes works by Francisco de Zurbur\u00e1n, El Greco, Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla, Joan Mir\u00f3, Eduardo Chillida and Anthony van Dyck, as well as contemporary audio-visual installations and a coin collection.<\/p>\n
The museum\u2019s home is the imposing 1795 Pereda Building. Previously Banco Santander\u2019s headquarters, it has been refashioned by the British architect David Chipperfield, who has retained its original structure to provide 10,000 sq. m of exhibition space. Chipperfield has, however, glazed over the central archway, which had previously separated the twin parts of the building\u2019s double-fronted fa\u00e7ade, and created landings for easy access across both sides.<\/p>\n
A major addition to the local art scene, the museum has been financed by the Santander Foundation and cost \u20ac40m, the bank said in 2018. (Santander and Daniel Vega P\u00e9rez, Faro Santander\u2019s director, declined to give a more recent\u00a0figure.)<\/p>\n
Cantabrian attraction<\/p>\n
Santander has often been overlooked as little more than an entry point for ferries. But since the arrival in 2017 of the dramatic, Renzo Piano-designed Centro Bot\u00edn<\/a> for contemporary art, the Cantabrian capital has started to attract art lovers. Its development as an art destination seems likely to accelerate as Faro Santander becomes part of an \u2018art triangle\u2019 encompassing not only the Centro Bot\u00edn but also a new outpost of Madrid\u2019s Reina Sofia, due to open in 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat has struck me since arriving in Cantabria is the high number of cultural and artistic projects in development, both public and private,\u201d Vega says. \u201cThere\u2019s a very high demand for projects of this kind, particularly given that this is a relatively small region. I think this new project of major museums will respond to the demand which is already there in our community but also, at the same time, attract visitors from further afield.\u201d<\/p>\n Faro Santander is spread across 10 floors, with four floors of exhibition spaces. Two upper levels, including roof terraces with panoramic views, accommodate the caf\u00e9 and restaurant. The basement houses an auditorium and technical facilities. There will also be spaces for children\u2019s and family activities, a VR experience and immersive area where visitors can learn about the history of the bank and the building, as well as spaces devoted to contemporary Cantabrian art and audio-visual installations. The core collection will occupy the fourth floor.<\/p>\n Vega, who was previously the deputy director for exhibitions and conservation at Bilbao\u2019s Guggenheim Museum, says the plan is to showcase the collection in a way that is \u201cpermanent yet dynamic, changing the display and focusing on different artists\u201d.<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cPreviously, the collection was only on view in Madrid in a gallery in Banco Santander\u2019s corporate offices, far from the centre of the city, so there wasn\u2019t a dedicated space\u201d where visitors could see it.<\/p>\n The inaugural exhibition, Masterpieces from the Banco Santander Collection, is curated by the Spanish art historian Mar\u00eda Dolores Jim\u00e9nez-Blanco and will be divided into four thematic sections: landscape, still-life, portraiture and biblical stories, with works from the 16th to 21st centuries. An inaugural temporary exhibition will show part of the Gelman Santander collection<\/a>, which includes works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jos\u00e9 Clemente Orozco and Mar\u00eda Izquierdo. The show, titled Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection (until 10 January 2027, before touring), will feature paintings, drawings and prints by Kahlo, including some of her most renowned self-portraits such as Diego en mi pensamiento (Diego on my mind) and Autorretrato con monos (self-portrait with monkeys)\u2014both from 1943\u2014as well as Rivera\u2019s 1943 Portrait of Natasha Gelman.<\/p>\n The Gelman Santander collection has been dogged by controversy over a loan agreement for 160 works between the owners, the Zambrano family, Banco Santander and the Mexican authorities. Many of the works are designated as part of Mexico\u2019s national artistic heritage with stipulations that they cannot be permanently exported; in July, a citizen collective, Defence of the Gelman Collection, took legal action to annul the agreement. Asked about the future of the Gelman collection, Vega says it \u201cwill be back in Mexico in 2028 at the latest\u201d. A spokesperson for Faro Santander said the display at the new museum is \u201cin full compliance with the Mexican legislation\u201d.<\/p>\n