The Spanish Ministry of Culture has presented the Museum of Fine Arts in La Coruña—a state-owned institution whose administration has been transferred to the Galician regional government—with a beautiful 16th-century Flemish panel painting depicting the Virgin and Child, St. Anne, and St. Joseph, which was recovered as part of an operation against the illicit trafficking of cultural property. The Director General of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts, Ángeles Albert de León, presented the work alongside the Director General of Culture for the Galician Regional Government, Anxo Lorenzo, during a ceremony held at the museum.
The work, attributed to an anonymous Flemish painter—most likely from the Antwerp school— was created in the early 16th century and is notable for its excellent state of preservation. The panel now becomes a permanent part of the Galician museum’s collection, enriching the institution’s artistic heritage with a work of significant historical and figurative value, returned to its original context thanks to international cooperation between Spanish and Italian authorities committed to combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property.
This panel was recovered as part of Operation “Altarpiece,” conducted jointly by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Civil Guard, and the Italian Carabinieri. The recovered items, which included Renaissance panel paintings and works attributed to Amedeo Modigliani and Bruegel, came from a villa located in Marbella, in the province of Málaga. The pieces had been illegally exported to Italy without the necessary permits, and some of those permits had previously been denied precisely because of the value these works held for Spain’s historical heritage. The collaboration between the institutions of the two countries thus made it possible to locate the artifacts in art galleries and private residences in various Italian cities, as well as to trace the whereabouts of other works that had already been sold and exported from Italy to third countries.
The recovered artifacts, which have been considered part of Spain’s cultural heritage since the time of their illegal export, have been assigned by the Ministry of Culture to state museums located in various cities across Spain: the Museum of León, the Museum of Málaga, the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, as well as the Reina Sofía Museum, the National Museum of Anthropology, and the National Museum of Decorative Arts, the latter two located in Madrid.
Following the recovery of the artifacts, the panel depicting the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint Joseph was assigned to the Museum of Fine Arts in La Coruña during the 97th meeting of the Council for Historical Heritage, held in Rome in October 2025. This is a collegial body that brings together officials responsible for cultural heritage from all of Spain’s autonomous communities, along with representatives of the central government.
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| Spain Recovers a Beautiful Flemish Painting, Thanks in Part to the Carabinieri |
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