In 2016, the Portuguese government took the decision to keep 85 works by famous Spanish artist Joan Miró after an uproar over their proposed sale to foreign buyers through auction in 2014.
The paintings, estimated to be worth around €35m, came under state ownership in 2008 when the government nationalised the failed bank BNP, which had built up the surrealist collection.
The state, through the public entity Parvalorem, which manages three billion euros of toxic assets of the former bank BPN, has kept about 200 works of art, whose final end has not yet been decided, in a vault.
These include 88 paintings by Portuguese artists, among them Paula Rego, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso or Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, according to Público.
An inventory of the works has been done but as yet no decision has been made as to what will happen to them.
“Opportunely there will be talks with the Ministry of Culture and we await clarification from the State as to the possible interest that part or all of the works remain in the public realm and a final decision is still pending”, Francisco Nogueira Leite, president of Parvalorem, told Público.
Most of the paintings have been in storage since 2012, at the time of the bank’s privatisation, at the former headquarters of the BNU in Lisbon (the former Banco Nacional Ultramarino, which was absorbed by Caixa Geral de Depósitos bank circa 2001) and have recently been placed in an “entity specialised in the storage and transport of works of art, with 24-hour-a-day security and covered by adequate insurance.”