- The Regional Minister for Education, Culture and Universities and the Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library have signed the 15-year contract for the works
- The Hispanic Society holds the largest collection of works by Sorolla outside Spain, the result of the bond between its founder, Archer M. Huntington, and the Valencian painter
The Regional Minister for Education, Culture and Universities, Carmen Ortí, and the Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, Guillaume Kientz, have formalised the lease agreement for the exhibition of more than 200 works from the Joaquín Sorolla Collection, owned by the New York institution, which the Generalitat will display in València.
The contract will allow the Valencian Community to host, on a long-term basis, one of the most important collections of the Valencian painter held outside Spain. The Collection will be on view at the Museo de la Ciudad de València from February 2027.
Also present at the signing were the Second Vice-President and Regional Minister of the Presidency, José Luis Díez Climent, and the Managing Director of the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana (CMCV), Nicolás Bugeda.
Ortí stated that “this contract strengthens València’s role as an international benchmark in the dissemination and study of Joaquín Sorolla’s artistic legacy, and at the same time will bring Valencian, Spanish and European audiences closer to the cultural heritage of an institution that is key to the study and research of his work: the Hispanic Society Museum & Library”.
The Regional Minister for Culture recalled that “the arrival of the Hispanic Society in València has a special significance because of its historic relationship with Joaquín Sorolla since, from its foundation, the institution played a fundamental role in the international dissemination of the Valencian painter’s work”.
For his part, Guillaume Kientz explained that “more than a century after Archer M. Huntington and Joaquín Sorolla built a bond that would forever change the artist’s international profile, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library is presenting an exceptional part of its legacy in València”.
The institution’s Director and CEO added that “this exhibition represents a bridge between València and New York, between the place where Sorolla was born and the city where his work found one of its great international platforms. We are proud to help bring this legacy closer to the people of València and to begin, with this project, a new chapter in the history of our institution”.
The lease amounts to €1,150,000 per year over a fifteen-year term, and is part of the agreement signed on 24 July 2025 between the Generalitat and the Hispanic Society of America for the creation in the city of València of a museum-quality exhibition space to house the collection of works by Joaquín Sorolla belonging to the American institution.
The initial term of the contract is four years, with the possibility of three successive extensions. Two of them may last up to four years each and the last up to three years, allowing the total term to be extended to 15 years.
The Sorolla Collection
The Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana will be the institution responsible for exhibiting the Collection at the Museo de la Ciudad de València from February 2027.
The exhibition has been curated by Guillaume Kientz, Director and CEO of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, and by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the artist’s great-granddaughter and one of the leading specialists in his work. It will bring together oil paintings, gouaches, drawings, photographs and sculptures, offering a broad and, at the same time, intimate view of the painter’s life, work and creative universe.
Hispanic Society Museum & Library
Founded in New York in 1904 by Archer Milton Huntington, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library holds one of the world’s most important collections of art from Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the Philippines. Its library is also one of the foremost centres for research into Hispanic art and culture.
The institution played a major role in the international reach of Sorolla’s work. Huntington was Sorolla’s friend, admirer and patron, and their relationship was decisive in strengthening the artist’s ties with the United States.
In 1909, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library organised a major exhibition devoted to Sorolla’s work, a pivotal moment both for the artist’s international career and for the institution itself. The exhibition welcomed 160,000 visitors in barely a month, an extraordinary figure that helped consolidate Sorolla’s recognition in the United States and project his work internationally.
This bond is reflected today in the extraordinary collection of the painter’s work held by the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, the largest outside Spain, which can now be enjoyed in València. The opening of this space thus revives a historic relationship between two cities that were fundamental to Sorolla’s career: València, where he was born and forged an essential part of his artistic identity, and New York, where his work achieved remarkable international prominence.
