MADRID, March 27 (Reuters) – Two royal portraits by Spanish master Goya belong to Spain and not to cigarette-maker Altadis, despite a long historical trail linking the firm to the factory that commissioned them, the Supreme Court said in a ruling published on Friday.
The ruling marks the end of a remarkable nine-year legal tussle over the portraits of Spain’s King Charles IV and his wife Maria Luisa of Parma painted in 1789 by Francisco Goya, famed for masterpieces including “The Third of May 1808”.
They were commissioned by the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville to be displayed on a monument in front of its facade as part of the festivities celebrating the king’s coronation more than 230 years ago, the court statement said.
Over the years the royal tobacco business that operated the factory passed through leases and other agreements to a series of firms including Tabacalera, which in 1999 became cigarette and cigar maker Altadis, now owned by Imperial Brands.
Over those years, the paintings were displayed in many of those companies’ offices, the statement added.
The legal dispute began when Altadis filed a civil lawsuit in 2017 seeking a declaration of ownership over the two portraits, arguing it had been their undisputed and uninterrupted custodian for many years .
The Supreme Court ruling, made on Wednesday and released two days later, found that two portraits commissioned by a royal factory belonged to the Crown’s patrimony in 1789 and subsequently passed to the modern Spanish state.
Spain’s Ministry of Education had allowed the company that took on the business in 1887 to possess the paintings “for ornamental purposes in its buildings, but did not relinquish its ownership at any time,” the ruling added.
On Friday, Altadis said it did “not agree with the substance of the ruling and maintains that it was the rightful owner of the portraits”. But it said it accepted the judgment, which could not be appealed.
The statements from the court and the company did not give details on the paintings’ current location.
(Reporting by Paolo Laudani, editing by Aislinn Laing and Andrew Heavens)
