The murals for the New York Waldorf Astoria from 1929 end up in Boadilla after a dispute between Madrid and Catalonia
EL PAÍS has access to the Madrid file to protect 15 wall paintings by the painter Josep María Sert that the Generalitat wanted to designate as a Good of Cultural Interest since 1987
Fifteen murals by Josep María Sert have been protected by Madrid in the financial city of Banco Santander in Boadilla del Monte. The murals were originally created to decorate the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York and cost $150,000 in 1929. The Generalitat de Cataluña initiated procedures to declare the paintings a Bien de Interés Cultural when they returned to Spain, but it was Madrid that ultimately gave them this protection nearly 40 years later.
Sert was a painter who witnessed significant historical events, including the Spanish Civil War and the two World Wars.
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