Gelman Collection Dispute Deepens as Coalition Files Legal Action Against Banco Santander and INBAL
A long-running dispute over one of Mexico’s most closely watched art holdings has entered a new phase. Defense of the Gelman Collection, a coalition of artists, historians, critics, and other supporters, says it has begun legal proceedings against Banco Santander and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL), Mexico’s arts agency, over the handling of the 300-work Gelman Collection.
The collection, assembled by the late collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman, includes historically important paintings by Frida Kahlo as well as works by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Rufino Tamayo. It resurfaced in Banco Santander’s holdings in January, roughly a year and a half after the Mexican government said it did not know where the collection was. The bank then moved the works to Spain, a step that many in Mexico’s art world argued violated the country’s cultural heritage laws.
Mexico later said the collection would return in 2028, but that announcement has not settled the controversy. In a letter to a Mexico City judge, representatives for Defense of the Gelman Collection called the actions of Banco Santander and INBAL unconstitutional. A representative for the group said the filing was “the first of several planned lawsuits.”
The coalition has also renewed its call for a formal inquiry into how the collection was handled. Its argument is not only legal but cultural: the group says Mexico’s artistic heritage should be governed by the Constitution and the law, not by administrative convenience or private financial interests.
The stakes are unusually high because of the collection’s contents. Mexico owns just seven Kahlo works, while 10 more are in the Gelman Collection alone. The group is also pressing for a permanent public space dedicated to the holdings, a model often used for major private collections after the death of their owners.
Representatives for Banco Santander and INBAL did not respond to requests for comment. For now, the dispute leaves one of Mexico’s most significant modern art collections suspended between private control, public claim, and unresolved legal scrutiny.
