Guernica by Pablo Picasso

On 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Guernica was obliterated in three hours of bombing by the Nazi Luftwaffe and Italy’s Aviazione Legionaria, in support of General Franco’s Nationalist forces. Deeply affected by the news, Pablo Picasso, then living in Paris and commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to create a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, channelled his outrage and grief into a single work: Guernica.

After its debut in Paris, the painting embarked on a world tour to benefit the Spanish Refugee Relief Committee. With the outbreak of World War II, Picasso asked that it not return to Spain until democracy was restored, and so it was entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) for safekeeping. Following Franco’s death in 1975 and the transition to democracy, negotiations began over its return, and in 1981 Guernica finally arrived in Spain, where it now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofía. Key to its transfer was Javier Tusell who, as General Director of Artistic Heritage, Archives and Museums, oversaw the delivery of the painting to Madrid.

On 28 January 2025, ADA has the pleasure of inviting Genoveva Tusell, Javier Tusell’s daughter and author of Guernica Recovered, to speak about this fascinating history. She will be joined by Carlota Álvarez Basso, Head of Institutional Relations at the Museo Reina Sofía.

Additional information

Limited places are available and will be assigned by registration only.

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Image credits: Guernica, Pablo Picasso | © Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2025