Cultural heritage misplacement in Francoist Spain

Alba CALDERÓN CASTRO

Master's thesis

A pending democratic and social issue through the Pazo de Meirás case study

Cultural heritage misplacement in Francoist Spain: A pending democratic and social issue through the Pazo de Meirás case study

Abstract:

For millennia, cultural heritage pieces taken away from their original owners and given to new ones in a manner similar to looting or plunder have existed and, therefore, the subject has been studied by multiple experts from numerous perspectives. It is quite different, however, to study the more nuanced topic of cultural heritage misplacement within one single community and that is what this paper does: explore the repercussions that the non-return of cultural heritage taken away during the Civil War and subsequent dictatorship has on the democratic and social levels in the context of 2023 Spain. Previous research showed that experts have focused on the politics, cultural policy and misappropriation, but few have tried to blend them together in one study. Nevertheless, there was a clear gap in the literature regarding the approaches adopted thus far as no researchers had combined the different disciplines interacting with cultural heritage such as political science or sociology. This paper aimed at creating a supportive argument for pre-existing investigations such as Arturo Colorado Castellary's on the ongoing situation of non-returned pieces of Spanish cultural heritage by studying the democratic and social implications of the non-return in present day. The analytical part of the study was done through a content analysis methodology where the performed coding on the collected datainterviews, tweets, legislative papers and academic journalsrevealed the reappearance of certain words and topics, exposing a democratic system still linked to the past fascist dictatorship from the 20th century in Spain both in terms of legislation and social perception. These findings acquired a considerable significance on the research field because no previous study on Spanish cultural heritage had focused particularly on the social level or its connection to democraticness.

Abstract:

For millennia, cultural heritage pieces taken away from their original owners and given to new ones in a manner similar to looting or plunder have existed and, therefore, the subject has been studied by multiple experts from numerous perspectives. It is quite different, however, to study the more nuanced topic of cultural heritage misplacement within one single community and that is what this paper does: explore the repercussions that the non-return of cultural heritage taken away during the Civil War and subsequent dictatorship has on the democratic and social levels in the context of 2023 Spain. Previous research showed that experts have focused on the politics, cultural policy and misappropriation, but few have tried to blend them together in one study. Nevertheless, there was a clear gap in the literature regarding the approaches adopted thus far as no researchers had combined the different disciplines interacting with cultural heritage such as political science or sociology. This paper aimed at creating a supportive argument for pre-existing investigations such as Arturo Colorado Castellary's on the ongoing situation of non-returned pieces of Spanish cultural heritage by studying the democratic and social implications of the non-return in present day. The analytical part of the study was done through a content analysis methodology where the performed coding on the collected datainterviews, tweets, legislative papers and academic journalsrevealed the reappearance of certain words and topics, exposing a democratic system still linked to the past fascist dictatorship from the 20th century in Spain both in terms of legislation and social perception. These findings acquired a considerable significance on the research field because no previous study on Spanish cultural heritage had focused particularly on the social level or its connection to democraticness.

Keywords

cultural heritage, Spain, misplacement, Francoism, democraticness, social repercussions

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 1. 8. 2023

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Martin Elbel, M.A., Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Humanities / Euroculture