Another victory for the Barcelona City Council in its struggle to recover the artistic legacy of Julio Muñoz Ramonet after the businessman’s grandson, Manuel Castelo Muñoz, has given up continuing to litigate for two of the collection’s jewels: ‘La Virgen del Pilar’ , by Goya, and ‘The Annunciation’, by El Greco.
The works, valued at nearly 7 million euros, already starred in an odyssey with the air of a farce when, after disappearing from Muñoz Ramonet’s mansion in Barcelona and reappearing in an operation by the Civil Guard, they ended up being deposited by court order at the Madrid address of Castelo Muñoz, also son of the photographer Isabel Muñoz Villalonga.
Now, after Castelo Muñoz has withdrawn the appeal that he had filed with the Supreme Court, the Muñoz Ramonet Foundation has been ratified as the legitimate owner of the paintings.
According to the Barcelona City Council, the grandson of Muñoz Ramonet would have withdrawn the appeal after learning that the Supreme Court resolution indicated that he would not be admitted.
Both canvases were part of the Rómulo Bosch Catarineu collection and are part of the legacy that Julio Muñoz Ramonet left in the city of Barcelona when he died in 1991. In the midst of a property dispute with the industrialist’s daughters and their refusal to comply with the different judicial resolutions, in September 2014 the Foundation made a claim to the courts for a Judicial Commission to take possession of the paintings. Three years later, in June 2017, the works were recovered and deposited in the MNAC.
