The Spanish government has announced it will conduct a review into state-run museums in a vow to "decolonise" exhibitions.
The announcement has been accused of "wokery", historical ignorance and an attempt to destroy institutions such as the Prado, the Spanish national art gallery.
Newly appointed culture minister Ernest Urtasun told parliament that the review would "make it possible to overcome a colonial framework or one anchored in gender or ethnocentric inertia that has, on many occasions, hindered visions of heritage, history and artistic legacy".
However, the announcement from the Socialist-led government caused outrage from the opposing right wing parties and commentators, including main conservative opposition People’s Party.
The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, at the Culture Commission
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People's Party head of cultural affairs Borja Sémper called it: "A debate forcibly imported … from the extreme left or woke left." He demanded that the government explain "in what way state museums endorse colonial culture."
Meanwhile, far right Vox Party called Urtasun a "hispanophobe" and accused him of having "internalised part of that black legend that compares the Spanish Empire with the Belgian Congo."
The announcement received a mixed reception from the left wing of Spanish politics.
The Socialist party’s culture head Manuela Villa said she did not want to politicise the issue, adding: "I would distance the contextualisation of the works from politics and leave it in the hands of experts, that is, in each case, the artistic directors of the museums."
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Borja Sémper said there was no evidence for the claims state Spanish museums endorse colonial culture
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Right-wing commentators accused the minister of wanting to "to burn Madrid’s museums" and "tarnish Spain’s image".
Comment editor at conservative online magazine El Debate Ramón Pérez-Maura said: "Urtasun is one of these people who never recognises the contribution that Spain made in a territory where there were massacres, human sacrifices and civilisations that practiced slavery and other horrors which they do not feel comfortable denouncing."
Urtasun said: "We are working to make visible and recognise the perspective of the communities and the memory of the people from which the exhibited goods come."
Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum responded to the announcement saying it had been working on adding context to their exhibits for years. A spokesperson from the museum said: "This coming summer an exhibition will focus on the colonial footprint in the Thyssen collections."
Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum said that it had been working for years on the concept of decolonisation
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It comes as the UK announced it would loan back precious artefacts from Ghana that were being held in the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) and the British Museum.
The items are being given current King of Asante, Otumfo Osei Tutu II and not the Ghanaian government, on a three-year loan agreement with the option to extend for a further three years.
The Asante Gold, which was taken from the African kingdom in the 19th century, is set to be returned following pressure from Osei Tutu.
The objects include a sword of state, gold badges worn by officials, as well as ceremonial caps and pipe. The items set to go on display at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, the capital of the Asante region as part of King Tutu's silver jubilee celebrations.
