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Three trucks left at noon this Monday from Coslada (Madrid) on their way to Poland on a mission in the purest style of the ‘Monument Man’. Loaded with 200 cubic meters of boxes and 12,500 kilos of protection materials, their goal is to provide their aid to Ukrainian museums to safeguard the works of art that they guard, in danger due to the war unleashed after the Russian invasion that was 125 days old yesterday.
Fifteen museums and institutions Spanish companies have responded to the ‘Professionals and Museums with Ukraine’ campaign promoted by
ICOM Spainthe Spanish National Committee of the International Council of Museums, donating packing boxes, pallets, fire extinguishers, polyethylene foam sheets, corners for paintings, silica gel cans or computer materials (external hard drives, tablets, computers and mobile phones) .
“From ICOM we are very happy that so much heritage protection material has been collected to distribute among the museums in Ukraine that need it,” said Teresa Reyes, president of ICOM Spain in a note.
The Spanish Institute of Cultural Heritage, Fundación Andalusia – Andalusian Studies Center Foundation, Museum of Costume, Museum of America, Gughenheim Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante, Museum of Badajoz, Municipal Museums of the City Council of Elche, Association of Museologists and Museographers of Andalusia, SG of Fine Arts of the Community of Madrid, the Cultural Heritage Office of the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Art and Memory Company, the Iberex Company, the Prado Museum and the Valladolid Sculpture Museum.
Other museums, institutions and individuals have contributed to this project through financial donations, among them the Professional Association of Museologists of Spain (APME), Higher School of Conservation and Restoration of Bens Mobles de Catalunya, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya Ullastret, Museu Arqueològic de l’Esquerda or Museu del Càntir de Argentona, among others. In the wake of
a proposal from the Museum Service of the Generalitat de Catalunya of including a solidarity box for the museums of the Ukraine, different donations have been received from the Catalan museums.
The works of art transport companies SIT, Feltrero, EDICT and TTI have acted as collection points for materials throughout Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca and Granada) which have subsequently been taken to the warehouses of one of them. In the SIT offices in Coslada (Madrid) the load has been centralized and prepared, organizing it on pallets.
Correos has chartered the trucks and has fully financed one of them, while the other two have been financed by ICOMOS Spain and ICOM Spain.
The three trucks left yesterday around two in the afternoon bound for the warehouse of the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves located in the city of Komorowo (Poland).
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism