Lost Spanish Paintings Returned after Century
An entry in an auction catalog helped solve a mystery and recover a pair of missing altarpiece paintings.
In 1929, the Hospital de los Venerables (Hospital of the Venerable Priests) in Seville, Spain, loaned two oil paintings on oval pine panels by Baroque artist Lucas de Valdés to the Ibero-American Exposition. After the exposition ended in 1930, the paintings were not returned.
The Archdiocese of Seville spent nearly a hundred years looking for the paintings. In 2025, a listing in an auction house catalog came to their attention, and they informed Spain’s Ministry of Culture. The Historical Heritage Brigade investigated the listed paintings and determined that they were the missing ones.
Just days before the auction, the Spanish National Police seized the paintings and initiated a mediation process that led the consignors to agree to return them to the Archdiocese of Seville. They were returned in a ceremony on May 20.
The paintings originally decorated the main altarpiece of the church at the Hospital of the Venerable Priests. They depict Biblical scenes: one shows David receiving sacred loaves, and the other shows Samson with a lion.
The Hospital of the Venerable Priests was constructed in the late 1600s as a residence for elderly, poor, and retired priests. A beautiful example of Baroque art and architecture, including many paintings by Valdés and his father, it is open as a museum today.
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