A portrait of a young aristocrat, painted ca. 1795–1800 by Spanish master Francisco de Goya, has been at the center of a long-running dispute between two aristocratic Spanish brothers.
Now, a Madrid court has ruled that Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 10th Marquess of Villanueva del Duero and husband of Esperanza Aguirre, Spain’s former minister of education and culture and a leader in the conservative Popular Party, must pay his brother, author and playwright Íñigo Ramirez de Haro, Marquis de Cazaza in Africa, 853,732 euros ($992,420) from the proceeds of the sale of the Portrait of Valentín Belvís de Moncada, according to El Mundo. The late construction and metals billionaire Juan Miguel Villar Mir bought the painting in 2012 for 5.8 million euros ($6.7 million) in a sale facilitated by Sotheby’s.
Fernando had inherited the painting, which measures nearly seven feet high and shows the subject, an ancestor of the feuding brothers, in the uniform of a captain general, from their father, aristocrat Ignacio Ramírez de Haro y Pérez de Guzmán, who died in 2010. The canvas had hung in the family mansion for years, out of public view.
Íñigo told El Mundo in 2019 that there was debate over the attribution of the painting and that their father believed it to be worth no more than 10,000 euros when he left it to his older brother. Disagreeing about the work’s authenticity, the family called in a Goya expert, former Prado Museum curator Manuela Mena, who certified the painting as authentic. Facing debts, Fernando sold the painting to Villar Mir in 2012. Up until that point, it was known only through a black-and-white photo; it went on public display for the first time in the 2015 exhibition “Goya: The Portraits” at the National Gallery in London.
The family met in 2012 to decide how to deal with 7 million euro ($8.1 million) in debts owed by Ramírez de Haro. In a signed document from 2014, they agreed to sell the painting, after which Ramírez de Haro would pay a share to each of the four brothers and the daughter of the fifth brother, who was deceased. After failing to secure payment, Íñigo filed a criminal complaint in 2020, which was dismissed, but he ultimately won in civil court after suing his brother for falsifying documents, fraud, misappropriation or theft of property, money laundering and corporate crime. He also claimed that Aguirre abused her powers by failing to register the painting as national heritage, which would have incurred higher taxes and more restrictions on its sale.
“The absence of the establishment of a temporary term and the means of accrediting the economic availability, does not prevent the maturity of the debt as it is considered that a prudent time has elapsed that does not admit further delays in the fulfillment of what was agreed since there have been various proposals to make it effective, as evidenced by the crossed emails between the parties and their brothers,” said the magistrate.
In 2023, the city of Madrid declared the painting, now part of the Villar Mir Cultural Found, an asset of cultural interest, affording it the maximum degree of protection.
