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IN PICS: Behind the doors of Madrid’s sumptuous art-filled Liria Palace

Home to one of Spain's most important private art collections that includes paintings by Goya, Velazquez and Rubens, the Liria Palace was for decades Madrid's best kept cultural secret.

IN PICS: Behind the doors of Madrid's sumptuous art-filled Liria Palace
Photos: Handout / Casa de Alba Foundation / AFP

But over 14,000 people have so far visited the home of the 19th Duke of Alba, the head of one of Spain's oldest and richest aristocratic houses, since it opened its doors to the general public in September and there is a two-month waiting period for tickets.   

“The social pressure to see the collection was strong,” said Alvaro Romero Sanchez-Arjona, head of the culture department at the Casa de Alba Foundation which runs the 18th century palace located near the bustling Gran Via, the Spanish capital's main shopping street.

Its most notable paintings include a portrait by Francisco Goya of the 13th Duchess of Alba that was recently returned after being leased to the Thyssen museum in Madrid, as well as portraits of other members of the five centuries-old House of Alba by Titian and Rubens.

The library, decorated in a vivid shade of emerald, displays a collection of letters by Christopher Columbus, a first edition of Miguel de Cervantes' classic “Don Quixote” from 1605, and the Alba Bible — the first Spanish translation of the Old Testament.

Other treasures include luxurious tapestries and porcelain belonging to France's last empress and wife of Napoleon III, Maria Eugenia de Montijo, who died at the palace in 1920.

The Liria Palace was occupied by Communists during Spain's 1936-39 Civil War and was gutted by several fires that left just the four outer walls standing. But the priceless collection of paintings survived because they were stored in the cellars of the Prado museum and the Bank of Spain.

'Like a Zara window'

Duke Carlos Fitz-James Stuart and his family continue to live on the second floor of the palace which is off limits to the public but 12 rooms on the lower floors can be visited.

This is the third palace that the Albas have opened for public visits since the death in 2014 of the duke's mother, the 18th Duchess of Alba who according to the Guinness Book of Records had more aristocratic titles than any other
person on the planet.   


The Duchess of Alba dances flamenco next to her husband Alfonso Diez after their wedding ceremony at the Palacio de las Duenas in Sevilla on October 5, 2011.Photo: AFP

Known for her shock of frizzy hair, flamboyant manner and outrageous clothes, the thrice-married duchess who was born in the Liria Palace was frequently photographed at society weddings and bullfights.

She made headlines in 2011 when at the age of 85 she married a civil servant who was 24 years younger.

Before the marriage she divided her fortune — estimated at between €600 million ($665 million) and €3.5 billion — amongst her six children to convince them that her suitor was besotted with her rather than her money.

The family is prohibited from selling many of its heirlooms due to their cultural significance so opening up their properties to visitors is a way to raise funds to help offset the huge costs of their upkeep.

But the decision to allow the public in Liria Palace has divided the Albas. 

The fifth son of the 18th Duchess of Alba, Cayetano Martinez de Irujo, blasted the move in an autobiography published in September in which he also recalled how he and his siblings were raised by nannies who beat them with bamboo canes, and lived a youth full of sex and cocaine.

“My home will become a showcase like a Zara window,” he wrote, referring to the popular Spanish-owned clothing chain.

By AFP's Álvaro Villalobos

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ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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