Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that 13th-century Romanesque murals removed from the Sijena Monastery during the Spanish Civil War must be returned to their original home in Aragon. The artworks have been housed at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) since 1936, after a fire gutted the monastery's chapter house. The ruling dismisses previous agreements that Catalan authorities claimed legitimized their custody, finding that the Sijena religious order never ceded ownership. The decision caps over a decade of legal battles and jurisdictional disputes between Aragon and Catalonia.
The ruling matters because it pits legal ownership against cultural preservation. MNAC officials and conservators warn that moving the fragile murals—mounted on stretchers and partially reconstructed—could cause irreversible damage without a comprehensive conservation plan. The museum has proposed a phased return of less delicate works, but the fate of the central frescoes remains uncertain. The case highlights the tension between regional heritage claims and the practical challenges of transporting historically significant but physically vulnerable artworks, setting a precedent for similar restitution disputes across Europe.