The “Velázquez” exhibition, sponsored by Abertis through its subsidiary in France, Sanef, has become one of the cultural events of the year in Paris, averaging almost 5,000 visitors a day, which are record figures.

This is the first retrospective of the artist Diego Velázquez in France and displays a complete panorama of the Spanish artist’s work, from his early days in Seville until his latter years, as well as the influence of his art on his contemporaries. This exhibition, which has been possible thanks to the joint efforts of the Louvre Museum and the Grand Palais, with the collaboration of the Kunsthistorishes Museum of Vienna and the generous support of the Prado Museum, has absolutely exceptional loans such as Apollo in the forge of Vulcan (Prado Museum, Madrid) and other masterpieces such as the Venus with a mirror (National Gallery, London) or the Portrait of Innocent X (Palazzo Doria Pamphili, Roma), universal icons of the history of art. The exhibition, which opened on March 26th, can be visited until 13 July at the Grand Palais in Paris.

The exhibition goes beyond a traditional retrospective, as it presents the principal questions about the artist’s life and latest discoveries, exhibiting recently found works, some on display for the first time.

Abertis and culture

Abertis, through the Abertis Foundation and its subsidiaries abroad, has sponsored important cultural exhibitions in the last few years, such as the grand Salvador Dalí retrospective, which beat all records for visits in the cities where it was on display: In 2012, in the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris (Sponsored by the French subsidiary of Abertis – Sanef); in 2013, in the Reina Sofía of Madrid (sponsored by the Abertis Foundation) and in 2014, in Río de Janeiro and São Paulo (Sponsored by the Brazilian subsidiary of Abertis – Arteris), becoming the first Salvador Dalí retrospective to travel to Latin America and the most visited in the history of the artist.

As a result of the collaboration between Abertis and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, important exhibitions have come to the museum in Madrid, such as the grand retrospective of the pop artist Richard Hamilton open in 2014. On the programme for 2015 we can highlight the exhibition project of the Basel Kunstmuseum collections, which can be visited until 14 September 2015 in the centre in Madrid.

Abertis‘ links with the art world also achieved another significant historic milestone in 2007 with the acquisition, by means of a donation, of an oil painting by the Malaga-born artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (1937), currently on display at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC).

It also collaborates with the principal cultural and artistic institutions of the country, such as the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), the Friends of the MNAC Foundation, the Foundation of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Macba Foundation, the Granollers Chamber Orchestra Foundation, the Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Foundation, the Pau Casals Foundation, the Foundation of the Auditorium, the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation, the Teatro Real and the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, among others. Beyond our borders, Abertis collaborates with prestigious institutions such as the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, the Tomie Ohtake Institute in São Paulo, or the CorpArtes Foundation in Chile.

These collaborations are another sample of Abertis’ commitment to culture, working with important cultural institutions in the countries where it operates, with the aim of making culture accessible to the general public and to accompany Public Administrations in this task. In this respect, cultural sponsorship is one of the actions of involvement in the social fabric, established in Abertis’ Social Responsibility Strategic Plan, where culture is understood as something that enriches people and improves the quality of their life.