El Prado extendido

Prado extendido aims to point out The Museo del Prado’s collection on a national level through an innovative management long-term loans plan which fosters the collection’s standing, visibility and accessibility in the Spanish territory in order to encourage its knowledge and dissemination.

The idea will be developed in collaboration with more than 270 institutions that house objects on long-term loan from The Museo del Prado’s collection, and seeks to strengthen the relationships with other museums in order to complete their exhibition discourses, the definition of their museological identities and training the staff who work for them in museological matters.

Scientific and technical criteria will link The Museo Nacional del Prado’s collections with the institutions which take care of them, and that will make it possible to establish multiple narratives and interpretations based on the authorship of the artworks, their iconography and symbology, their places of production or origin, their cultural contexts or artistic styles, their techniques and their materials or their similarities and differences. A unique opportunity for knowledge management around the long-term loan artworks.

The origin of long-term loans Museo del Prado’s Collection

1819 The Real Museo de Pinturas is open to the public
1836 The first Regional Museums are created throughout the Spanish territory
1838 The Museo de la Trinidad is created
1860_s The first long-term loan from The Museo del Prado to The Academia de San Jorge in Barcelona
1872 The collections from The Museo de la Trinidad was joined to the current Museo del Prado
1898 - 1971 Massive dispersion of artwork that increases when The collections from The Museo de Arte Moderno joins The Museo del Prado’s collections

Distribution of prizes from the Exhibition of 1856

1978: Prado scattered

The systematic revision of long-term loans has been fostered since 1978. The main target of this work was the inspection of the cultural assets on long-term loan, its documentary control and keeping track of all information on them.

The results of this action come with the diffusion and publication since the 80s, of all cultural assets on long-term loan in a specific section of The Bulletin of Museo del Prado called Prado scattered.

Boletín del Museo del Prado (1980)
«Prado scattered»

The Long-term Loans from the Museo del Prado Nowadays

3426

cultural assets on long-term loan

282

Institutions

Embassies Religious institutions Public bodies Museums

Paintings from XVI to XIX century Sculptures Architectural remains Graphic arts Decorative arts

Number of objects on long-term loan

Number of institutions

Note: Map data from the Museo del Prado website. They may not match the actual information, which is updated every day.

The Prado extendido and the institutions

Objetive

Positioning the Museum’s collection in the national context through a new long-term loans museum policy.

Strategy

Promoting the national character of The Museo through the presence and visibility of the collection throughout the Spanish territory.
Ensure the conservation of artwork on long-term loan.
Foster the knowledge of cultural assets on long-term loan and its diffusion on-line.

Phylosophy

Support from The Museo Nacional del Prado to other institutions respecting their singularities, identities and discourses.
Promotion of the institutional collaboration between The Museo del Prado and the borrower’s venues.
Reinforcement of the territorial connection and the links between the different territories of the country.
Increase of the link between artwork on long-term loan and the idiosyncrasy of borrower’s venues.
Increasing the Museum del Prado’s presence in all the territorial regions and the cities of Ceuta y Melilla.
Increased public access to the artwork on long-term loan and its visibility.
Prioritize the long-term loan in museums.