The Guardia Civil plunders the Sixena artworks from the Museum of Lleida in the early hours of the morning

The Guardia Civil, via the intervention of Catalonia and the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, and under orders of Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, acting Minister of Culture of Catalonia, enters the Museum of Lleida in the early hours of the morning and plunders 44 artworks from the Sixena Monastery. 11 days before, Osca Provincial Court had upheld the 2015 judgment of the Osca First Instance Court no. 1 that declared void the sales contract between the nuns that used to live in the Monastery and the Government of Catalonia and the Catalonia’s Museum of National Art (MNAC). In 2016, the court had already ordered the Government of Catalonia, without a final judgment, to give the 97 artworks that were in the MNAC and the Lleida Museum, but just MNAC had followed the court orders. The operation of the plunder begins at midnight and lasts 14 hours, with a large police presence. According to witnesses, about 100 Guardia Civil agents entered the Museum marching and armed, and held the employees inside the premises. Several demonstrators protest in front of the entrance of the Museum, and the Mossos d’Esquadra start baton charges. On January 2021, the Spanish Supreme Court dismisses the appeals of the Government of Catalonia.