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Mexican cultural experts demand clarification in managing the Gelman Santander Collection
03 July 2026
Click the link below for un update article by Melanie Gerlis published on Jul 2 2026 on the Financial Times.
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2 April 2026
After 350 cultural professionals signed an open letter urging Mexican cultural authorities to be more transparent and follow heritage laws in the management of the cultural treasures, the future of the Gelman Collection—one of the most important collections of 20th-century Mexican art in the world—is coming under increased scrutiny.
The open letter comes after it was revealed last month that the Monterrey-based Zambrano family had purchased the collection, which was put together by Jacques and Natasha Gelman and included eighteen pieces by Frida Kahlo, in 2023. The agreement states that the Spanish bank will now be in charge of "the conservation, research, and exhibition" of the 160 pieces in the recently renamed Gelman Santander Collection.
Despite being privately held, the collection is complicated: thirty pieces are recognized by Mexican law as national artistic monuments, necessitating supervision by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL). The curator Cuauhtémoc Medina and the artists Mühl Meyer and Teresa Margolles are among the signatories who emphasize that Kahlo's paintings are the most tightly regulated, leading to demands for openness.
The Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City is hosting now the first exhibition of 68 pieces from the collection, “Relatos modernos. Obras emblemáticas de la Colección Gelman-Santander” including n.10 Kahlo paintings, among which the famous Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943) and Self-Portrait with Necklace (1933). The exhibition was originally scheduled to run until May but has since been extended to July.
Eighteen years have passed since the collection's last exhibition in Mexico.
Institutional interest in Kahlo's work has never been higher, despite the necessity of navigating Mexican heritage laws. At the press conference in January, Borja Baselga, the director of Fundación Santander, stated, "There is a waiting list of museums wanting to show works from the collection."
According to Berzunza, "Kahlo's works are masterpieces, and scarcity is a factor in her work." "The Mexican state only owns one Kahlo self-portrait," he continues, adding that the majority of her pieces are held by private collections and institutions.
The debate over the Gelman Santander Collection's future has even reached Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who stated at a press conference on March 25 that "we wish is for it to stay in Mexico—we should speak to those who have it."
