The Spanish Government, through the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands, has filed objections with the Insular Directorate of Historical Heritage of the Cabildo de Tenerife regarding the declaration of Cultural Interest (BIC) for the monument to Franco located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The primary argument put forward by the central administration is that there is no documentation within the administrative file that reflects the exceptional and outstanding qualities of Juan de Ávalos’s work.
The government points out in a statement that such outstanding values are necessary as stipulated by the Cultural Heritage Law of the Canary Islands for a BIC declaration, asserting that conferring such a status on a monument that does not fulfill these criteria would misconstrue the category.
Furthermore, the Spanish Government relies on the consensus of consulted academic institutions, which assert that there are no significant artistic elements present.
The University of La Laguna has determined that the work is “of minimal importance” in artistic terms, noting that Juan de Ávalos is primarily referenced in connection with the Valley of the Fallen. The specialised literature does not attribute “any significant formal or conceptual contribution” to his work, a lack of relevance that contributes to its “absence in museum collections or exhibitions.”
The Tenerife History and Anthropology Museum expressed a similar opinion in an unfavourable report, concluding that “there are no artistic or architectural elements protected by law,” and that such elements are not sufficiently articulated in the consulted academic bibliography.
The Official College of Architects, in its assessment, refrains from making artistic evaluations and advocates for a reinterpretation competition.
In this regard, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory states that the work itself “represents an element contrary to democratic memory,” in alignment with article 35 of Law 20/2022, dated 19 October, on democratic memory, emphasising that “objectively, and by application of the law, there exists an impossibility of re-signification or reinterpretation of the monument.”
In other words, the government argues that its re-signification or preservation contravenes the law.
Moreover, it notes that the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts of San Miguel Arcángel does not affirm its exceptional artistic value but considers its monumentality grants “artistic and aesthetic uniqueness to the city.”
However, representatives from the democratic memory sector contend that “monumentality cannot be interpreted as an intrinsic value of exceptionality.”
The only institution that has supported the declaration as BIC is the Royal Academy of Extremadura of Letters and the Arts, which does not cite any artistic exceptionalism but refers to “the quality of the work, in the context of the sculptor’s oeuvre, and as a striking testament to a historical-artistic period.”
Simultaneously, the government emphasises that it also serves as “an example of how art was utilized to support the regime during those years.”
