The Policy of Long-term Loans at the Museo Nacional del Prado (1819-1919): Inventory of Absences

Abstract

Artistic decentralization is not a new phenomenon, as the history of the Prado Museum demonstrates. The long-term loan of numerous paintings from the museum to other institutions (known as El Prado Disperso) was born out of the Museo de la Trinidad and its incorporation into the Prado in the nineteenth century. El Prado Disperso grew in the shadow of the museum. This text analyzes this ghost-museum from a political-institutional point of view and also from the perspective of the History of Art and of the museum world.