- Home page
- News
- Banco Santander will manage the Gelman Collection, including 18 pieces by Frida Kahlo
Banco Santander will manage the Gelman Collection, including 18 pieces by Frida Kahlo
22 January 2026
The Zambrano family and the Spanish Banco Santander have reached a long-term management agreement for the Gelman Collection, which will be known as the Gelman Santander Collection.
The 160 works in the Gelman Santander Collection include some of the most significant pieces of Mexican art from the 20th century. In addition to a sizable collection of Mexican photographs by Guillermo Kahlo, Graciela Iturbide, Gabriel Figueroa, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lola Álvarez Bravo, and others, it features paintings of exceptional historical and cultural significance by artists like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco, Gunther Gerzso, Francisco Toledo, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
"This agreement is a strong expression of the trust and friendship between Mexico and Spain, two countries with deep economic, social and cultural ties. The Gelman Santander Collection is one of the most important collections of 20th-century art and an extraordinary example of Mexico’s artistic richness. This is very good news, as Santander, through its Foundation, will take on the management of this exceptional artistic ensemble and contribute to its international outreach. I am delighted to announce that this will be the first major exhibition at Faro Santander before the summer.", declared Ana Botín, Banco Santander executive chair.
The collection will be part of the inaugural Faro Santander programme - set to be open in June - and will be exhibited in museums all over the world.
In the 1940s, Jacques and Natasha Gelman created the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, a collection of modern and contemporary Mexican paintings.
After receiving training in the film industry in Europe, Jacques Gelman moved to Mexico in 1938. He married Natasha Zahalka in 1941 and made the country his permanent home.
The Gelman couple built three significant collections: one of European modern art, which included 81 pieces by notable artists like Renoir, Matisse, Kandinsky, Modigliani, Picasso, Braque, Dalí, Balthus, and Miró, and was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1998; a second collection of pre-Columbian sculpture; and a third collection of modern Mexican art, which started with the commission of Diego Rivera's portrait of Natasha in 1943.
Along with important pieces by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, María Izquierdo, Francisco Toledo, Carlos Mérida, and Gunther Gerzso, among others, the Gelman Collection of modern Mexican art places special emphasis on the important collection of eighteen pieces by Frida Kahlo.
Along with their patronage, the Gelman couple had close relationships with a number of artists, such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, and Gunther Gerzso, and they were influential in modern Mexican art's international recognition.
For further info visit the Banco Santander website
