During Balclis's long history of performing face-to-face and online auctions, we have been proud to contribute to the expansion and enrichment of the museum funds of our country.

In this publication we want to show you some of the art objects acquired in Balclis by public institutions aimed at various national museums of great interest, which seek to increase their collections.

The recent pieces acquired last October belong to the online thematic auction of the collection of Josep Sarró i Condeminas, to us a recommitted silver platter with a couple of doves, a large glass enamelled glass and a silver brooch, which can be visited in the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid.

Josep Sarró i Condeminas. Silver Fermall

Following the latest acquisitions, two heavily featured lots and bids were obtained at the last face-to-face auction held this October 2023. One of them was Francesc Galofre Oller's painting, oil on signed cloth, which is described as a presentation painting or “modellino” of the large canvas preserved in the Barcelona Cathedral and dated 1895. It is available in the Museum of Valls in Tarragona.

Francesc Galofré Oller. The coronation of the Virgin of Mercè in the Cathedral of Barcelona

The following was the poster for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition by Francesc d'Assís Galí, exhibited in the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid.

Notable are these three attractive works by Sitges's local painter Artur Carbonell, a portrait, a still life and a landscape, which show the subtle interpretation of the international avant-garde aesthetic that is close to Art Deco and to German realism of the 1930s.

They were bought at the December 2019 auction in room officiated in Balclis for the Maricel Museum in Sitges and can now be visited at the exhibition “Museums Grove” (Museums Grove).

Portait about Rosa Montanyà i Angelet

Lansdcape, 1926

Bodegó, 1934

The portrait of painter and set designer Francisco Aranda and Delgado is an important work by the portrait painter Federico de Madrazo. Signed, dedicated "A F. Aranda / His Friend", located and dated Paris in 1839. The work was intended for the Museum of Romanticism in Madrid and can now be enjoyed in its collections. This work was sold at the face-to-face auction held in Balclis in October 2017.

Another of the relevant acquisitions was that of José María Sert's "The Horsemen" 1922–1924, a fascinating work that is part of a series of nine tapestry cards commissioned by King Alfonso XIII for the Real Tapestry Factory of Madrid.

First exhibited in New York in February 1924, this series was auctioned in Balclis in March 2021, and "The Knights" was purchased for the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid.

The Sant Genís dels Agudells panel, made by lacador Lluís Bracons Manlleu around 1923 and presented at the 1923 International Exhibition of the Moble and the Decoration of Interiors in Barcelona, was bought for the former Museum of Design of Barcelona (now Design Hub) at the May 2017 face-to-face auction officiated in Balclis.

This beautiful pair of sculptures in golden bronze, seated on 20th-century wooden peanyas, attributed to Pietro Tacca, described as reduced versions of two of the "Quatro mori" of the monument to Ferdinand II in Livorno, were acquired at the face-to-face auction in December 2021 to be exhibited at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

To conclude this article on works of art that have increased Spanish heritage, we mention three of the most important works that were acquired by the National Museum of Art of Catalonia:

The Martyrdom of San Baudilio, a tempera panel by Lluís Dalmau, is a work of great importance because of its author, very few, though very important paintings are known. Dalmau was one of those who introduced the Flemish Gothic style to the Peninsula and his great Virgin of the Concellers is one of the most outstanding Gothic works of the same museum. The play was acquired at the May 2017 face-to-face auction.

Lluís Dalamu. The Martyrdom of San Baudilio

From Lluís Borrassà, it was sold in Balclis at the officiated auction in June 2020, The Martyrdom of the servants of Sant'Hipolite, equally on table. It is a fragment of an altarpiece by one of the most renowned peninsular painters during the period known as International Gothic and which had been commissioned by the Cathedral of Barcelona in 1420.

Lluís Borrassà. Martyrdom of the servants of St. Hippolytus

In the area of the statuary, the Sagrada Família in marble from the Monastery of Sant Salvador de Breda stands out, made at the end of the 12th century and acquired by the museum at the auction in room in May 2023. The rarity of the material used, not too common in Catalan sculpture of the period and the quality of the carving, reveal the originality of the ensemble linked with works from the south of France.

Catalan School from the end of the 12th century. The circle of Gilabert of Toulouse. Holy Family