By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Jul 17 2001 (IPS)

The reopening of Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts is anxiously awaited this week after a long period of restoration that changed its facade and expanded its presence in the capital’s historic district from just one building to three.

Workers will be putting on the final touches, but it will be ready for the inauguration ceremonies scheduled for Jul 18, one of the museum’s curators told IPS last week. The island’s cultural authorities, however, had yet to confirm that the event would take place.

The metal fences that covered the reconstruction areas have been removed, the nearby houses were given a fresh coat of paint and the access streets were repaved in an attempt to spruce up the areas surrounding the museum site.

The design of the façade of the Fine Arts Palace, constructed in 1956, now harmoniously assimilates the ruins of the colonial arcades that were discovered within the walls during restoration efforts.

The investment of the Council of State, the Cuban socialist government’s maximum body, was channelled through the Historian’s Office of the City of Havana. But the financing ended earlier than expected and analysts predicted that the works, begun in 1999, would not be completed until at least 2003.

“We hope that haste does not turn out to be a poorly completed restoration and that we don’t run into problems later with leaks or things like that, which are typical in many recent Cuban constructions,” said René Arango, a private art collector.

“Cuba Internacional”, a magazine published by the Cuban agency ‘Prensa Latina’ revealed this month that the general budget for the three buildings of the museum was originally estimated at 31 million pesos.

The official exchange establishes parity of the peso with the US dollar, but in state-authorised exchanges houses the dollar buys 20 to 22 Cuban pesos. Of the total budget, approximately 40 percent involved foreign currencies, reports Cuba Internacional.

The project included the remodelling of the Fine Arts Palace, inaugurated in 1913 and relocated several times until reaching its definitive home in 1956, as well as the reconstruction and adaptation of two adjoining buildings.

The two additional structures are the Asturian Centre, built in 1925-1927, and the former Militia Barracks, dating back to 1764 and now home to the museum’s administrative offices.

While the original museum will be limited to exhibiting the collection of Cuban art since the 16th century, the old Asturian Centre will host showing of collections of ancient art and contemporary foreign works.

The National Museum of Fine Arts possesses an important collection of Cuban art that includes works by such classic artists as Wifredo Lam, René Portocarrero and Antonia Eiriz, as well as pieces by most of the island’s prominent contemporary artists.

It also holds a collection of North American works from the 19th century and from the 1970s, European pieces, colonial Latin American art and numerous examples of Mexican muralism from the 1930s and 1940s by such notables as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

In the new museum, 12,000 square metres will be dedicated exclusively to showing art works, allowing visitors to enjoy more than 2,500 paintings, sculptures, engravings and the collection of ancient art belonging to the Conde de Lagunillas.

The works in exposition will represent 37 percent of the museum’s total collection. Experts report that, in the past, the most the institution was ever able to show at one time was just 11 percent of its collection.

The new museum installations include storage and workshops for the preservation and restoration of art works, spaces for public participation and services, a 300-seat auditorium and a hall for audio-visual programming.

According to the architect in charge of the project, José Linares, the illumination and the environmental parameters will be controlled by an automated system that takes such variables into account as the building’s orientation and seasonal changes.

The museum also is endowed with a high-tech system of protection and integrated security.

Among the top aims of the restoration was to correct deficiencies in the Fine Arts Palace, such as the lack of space for storage and for housing the art restoration workshops and curators offices, as well as the structure’s inadequate environmental and illumination conditions.

“It had become increasingly evident that it was impossible to respond to the space required for a contemporary museum’s programmes and operations, which impose new and diverse space and function categories for its socio-cultural and public use,” commented Linares.

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