It is never really sad what has no remedy said many years ago Joan Manuel Serrat; The memory that makes us think that every past time was better can be melancholic, it can be disappointing when expectations have been generated but, at the end of the day, reality prevails and this is that one of the most important cultural heritage of Ibero-America is sale and one of the most active cultural institutions in our environment is in danger of disappearing.
The sale of the Citi-Banamex financial group has aroused the most diverse interpretations, the truth is that it is a decision in an international context, a rudder change that leads Citigroup to new paths; but for Mexico it has an additional element.
More than one hundred and thirty years ago one of the most important art collections on the continent began to form, today its catalog includes the vast majority of the work of José María Velasco, important works of Mexican art from the 19th century to the present day, a amazing collection of religious art – some of the best ivory carvings brought by the Nao from China – and folk art as well. In that catalogue, published with profusion and charm, there are works declared a national monument such as Diego Rivera. Perhaps, just perhaps, its real estate assets are the jewels in the crown: the Iturbide Palace, the Suchil Palace and the Casa Montejo. All of that will soon change hands.
Being the owner of a national monument, whether it is movable – such as a painting – or immovable – such as a palace – implies certain administrative burdens and certain property limitations, but it does not constitute public property; the owner must comply with the determinations of the INBA and the INAH, he cannot export the works of art or reproduce them without respecting the moral rights of the authors, for what he does to the real estate he must preserve them and not alter them. But it is still private property and therefore can be sold.
The Fomento Cultural Banamex press conference did not stop having that air of miss you as they say in Portuguese, end of an era. It is true that the objective was to reassure the cultural environment that has, like all of them, its particularities, but of course, in this case, as part of a larger patrimony, corresponding to a financial institution, an icon of the business world, it did not stop seem like the mother who takes care of the sick child, guaranteeing him that the next morning he will wake up well, even though in his heart he cannot guarantee it.
Nothing prevents the sale from being broken up to make it more attractive to a potential buyer who, of course, bypasses the wealthiest collectors and places himself within the corporate universe that has its own logic in which a tin toy from the 19th century has a certain price, but a different value as conceived by those of us who think about it in the context of our historical and cultural evolution. To put it more clearly, Fomento Cultural Banamex is about to disappear if it is not absorbed by a cultural institution with enough power to keep it running.
Parceling the collection means depreciating it, the fact of just belonging to that august collection is already an overprice in itself; to demarcate it from its headquarters is also to expose it; but beyond that, guaranteeing its availability as it has done for more than five decades is part of the value of both the plastic and bibliographic aspects that also contain its treasures.
But that will not be the greatest loss, the atomization of the collection is just the first step in a dream that would end in a nightmare; For many years, the operation of Fomento Cultural Banamex has been a kind of bastion in promoting popular art and the knowledge of our artistic history; no one can come between the wills of the buyer and the seller if a patrimonial or financial logic intervenes in their transmission, in this sense, all the reassuring statements of the press conference would pale, mute in the face of an offer or a series of offers, which prevent the future functioning of the institution.
Because, in this sense, the closure of the exhibition, disclosure, research and promotion programs would result in little collateral damage with respect to a financially successful operation; The survival of the institution would depend on the ability and willingness of Citibanamex to find the buyer who would succeed by acting as the owner, not of a collection or a set of historic buildings, but of an authentic cultural and artistic institution. This is a kind of declaration of well wishes.
Of course, we are very far from wanting the State to be the one that could
intervene to sustain the operation of Fomento Cultural Banamex, more so in a scenario in which the lack of a government cultural program is clearly visible, in addition to what is really about keeping alive a successful private effort to maintain collective memory , something that should be encouraged.
Now I remember all the times I visited the Iturbide Palace, the wonders I saw there and that show the intimate expression of my culture; It reminds me of traditional toys, ritual masks, Helguera calendars and Ángel Zárraga exhibitions because, when my mother gave me five pesos every Monday to buy my stamp for the school savings program that was pasted on the cardboard sheets and handed out to the Banamex teller, I felt that this was not a bank, but that it was part of the life of my country, that and nothing else, is what we are about to see disappear.
Twitter: @cesarbc70
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx