When Macron visited the Picasso Museum, in Barcelona

We tell you about Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Picasso Museum, where he visited the temporary exhibition of art dealer and gallerist Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.

We tell you about Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Picasso Museum. The president's agenda at the summit held with Pedro Sánchez in Barcelona on January 19 had set the time for lunch at one in the afternoon. More typical of the other side of the Pyrenees than those of us who live below it, still very imbued by the Madrid rhythms of the working days. It is true that the lunch was magnificently catered by chef Nandu Jubany, who is one of the most prestigious and quality catering services for events, weddings and various celebrations in the country. And that therefore topics such as the delay of the Mediterranean rail corridor between Montpellier and Perpignan did not deserve a minute more of conversation before launching into cannelloni, truffle toast or Nandu's popular croquettes.

The French president visited the temporary exhibition of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

In reality, Macron was in a hurry to finish the summit. And not to immediately return to the Elysee Palace to assess the state of the country he presides over, which that day was experiencing a general strike against the pension reform. His priority was to move to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona , scene of the magnificent temporary exhibition around the background and time of the art dealer and gallerist Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , a key figure in the spread of Cubism and very close to Picasso . A collaboration between the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Barcelona museum. Precisely these weeks mark the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso's death and also the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the Montcada street museum. But also seventy years since the Málaga authorities refused, in 1953, to open a museum of the artist in his hometown because of his anti-Francoism and communist militancy, despite the artist's enthusiasm for that initiative. It seems that this refusal is what prompted Picasso's secretary, the Catalan Jaume Sabartés, to raise the possibility of opening a museum of the artist in a city that is also part of the life trajectory of the brilliant painter and which was reality through an operation that the then mayor, Josep Maria de Porcioles, accepted, but that was so secretive in order not to provoke Madrid that even the mayor asked that the cards for the opening of the Museum Picasso, the organizers made sure that Picasso's name did not appear.

The French government denied Picasso citizenship

But back to Macron and his interest in visiting the exhibition. So that Sánchez and the rest of the entourage had made a quick turn, Macron asked to be left alone to make a second, more restful and quiet visit. The French, when it comes to protocol and the Republic, do not move a finger that they do not take advantage of. Faced with the interpretation of Las Meninas made by Picasso, Macron issued a new signal of the vindication of the French dimension of the artist. They have never forgiven the fact that in 1940 the French government denied Picasso - when he was already a world-renowned painter -, distressed by the arrival of the Nazis in France, French nationality. De Gaulle tried to amend it years later, but Picasso, offended, rejected it. Of course, they hurried to change the law that regulated inheritances while preparing for Picasso's legacy, when he died, to remain in France as payment.