The secret was in the basement vaulted the Ministry of Finance. And more than a year ago, when someone whose name no one wants to say sounded the alert, only sotto voce about him senior Department of Finance and the Ministry of Culture. Few people
else is in on it. Perhaps a comment should Zapatero. Maybe a discrete orders experts called to put a price on amazing booty. But above all, whispers.
- in the basement of the Treasury has come a treasure of war!
- "What!?
- A real treasure, chsssss ...
Among these walls where Julian Besteiro, el socialista que en marzo de 1939 quedó atrapado en Madrid (sobre un camastro, enfermo y demacrado) con la amarga misión de entregar el poder republicano a las nuevas autoridades franquistas que habían tomado la capital, estaba olvidado el último tesoro de la República: joyas, monedas antiguas y de oro de un valor numismático aún por descifrar, cuadros, piezas textiles, vajillas de plata...
In short, a pinch of that Spain Cain bitter that exactly 75 years ago, he began to kill and steal with fierce generosity. despoilment supporters of the rebel soldiers had a clear name, Box repairs, and other legend that still exist (from the uncertain Moscow gold to the enigma of the Vita, ship chartered by Negrin in 1939 to lead Mexico, from France, what remained of the loot from Republican amassed fortunes plundered enemies, the "rebels" blue).
the Fund was born in September 36 to prevent the looting of uncontrolled groups in the early stages of battle, and ended turned into a huge warehouse where rivers poured jewelry, diamonds, gold coinage, wads of cash, crowns of kings, cutlery, jeweled robes of virgin watch collections ...
Everything was legal and reasonable. With date of birth (the General Fund Repair was born on September 23, 1936, two months into the war) and a clear purpose of economic repression to others.
Word of decree, published in those terrible days, to justify their PREY: "It is not likely to suffice to cover the considerable grief material to support our country's criminal assets charge of seditious movement that has attacked the legality consists of our people. But, however, is quite right that they are the first to bear the grief .
And he did. The requisition, under the pretext of helping finance the war provoked by Franco and other insurgents on July 18, 1936, did not stop until almost the end of the war.
- What do all those boxes occupying much space, here in the basement ?
- You know, that's what you work on files of this house ...
- know what I mean, that should be open to know what is. If they are objects or old furniture will have to discard them. If it is administrative records, the closed again and sent to the General Archive of the Administration. I'm sure is just garbage .
A similar conversation must have occurred not long ago in the basement of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Said and done. Someone made the decision and others executed. Had to order the basement and, incidentally, find out what was in those mysterious boxes, cast aside there for decades.
before opening
But something caught the attention of officials. It was strange inscriptions on the outside of packages. With the resulting slow amazement, a worker began to read aloud: "It says here: National Commission Return. And a little below, is written Settlement Commission of the Fund's Repair Damage resulting from the Civil War. Governmental Madrid Court , year 1944 .... "
- anyone know what means?
open the first box was enough to begin to intuit. Today, despite the secrecy with which it is a delicate matter, are certainties. He appeared in Hacienda is but what is left unspent from that vast storehouse of seizures. What the Republican government in exile could not escape, 1939 . The remains of this shipwreck that was the Civil War and, partially recovered by Franco in 1939 and thereafter, was not returned to their rightful owners. He was buried in a Ministry as thousands of bodies on the other side in the gutter the entire country.
"The inventory is in place," is all dovetail to accept sources of Culture. Officially, historians had taken for settlement of the history of the famous Box Repairs.
" would be a coup ... Yes, we can speak of historical surprise. As far as I understood, at the Bank of Spain there was nothing in that box. Neither the Ministry of Finance. The destiny of all seized was fourfold. An important part sold in Paris on a regular basis in 38 by a special committee of finance, a great game went to Mexico on the boat Vita, another pinch crossed the border of France and disappeared for ever after the war, and there was a part which was in Spain because there was no time to take "says Angel Viñas, historian and one of the foremost experts in the accounts and gold movements and flows that were at the Bank of Spain during that period.
explains Viñas " part of the Fund was in the Castillo de Figueres and the Franco regime returned to their rightful owners. Everything looked very closely after the war. Realize there were many complaints from people who had cattle, and of course the regime was quick to help you. Were his own ... In history everything is possible. As a historian I do not exclude anything. Years ago, without more, appeared in premises of the Ministry of Foreign few gold bars that had been forgotten by the Nazis. History has these strange things ... If true that appeared the remains of the Reparations Fund would mean that the Franco regime, to be objects and stolen goods to their own, have ended up staying, and thus robbing his own supporters .
apparently between Treasury officials and Culture to handle the finding that there is a conviction there is no legal possibility that the heirs of the people they claim were stolen objects nothing, though in the case of goods seized in war. The time spent complaints seem to say. Because there was.
After Franco's troops occupied the castle of Figueres (February 1939), seize all the jewels, jewelry, objects and paintings that Republican leaders abandon their flight. Fast is decided that everything is sent to Madrid to take stock of where the assets recovered. Lots also reach Barcelona, \u200b\u200bValencia, Jaén ... And on March 9, 1940 promulgating a decree on "settlement of the case and locks repair Marxist and embargoes Red agencies agreed in relation to capital flight. "
From then until 1944, the dictatorship tried to return to their rightful owners the articles seized by the Republic. The result was disappointing.
itself the liquidation committee box has the minutes of the situation: "It is impossible to attribute possession of a certain person or property of the objects mentioned ." So it was decided to return, for the sake of national economic recovery, of securities (shares , banners, leaflets and values) to their rightful owners, which was easier to establish banks, business enterprises, legal and natural persons to provide proof of ownership on these deposits.
According to the study of Professor Glicerio Recio Sánchez, the greatest expert on the history of the Reparations Fund, the amount returned by the Liquidation Commission in 1940 (in securities and securities) had already reached the 370 million pesetas of time. Figure would be far from the 640 million that the historian appreciates the assets of the Fund in late 1938. The accounts of the objects nobody quite finished them before. And even less of what remained.
The work of two great photographers of the era, and Alfonso Santos Yubero yes notarized much help was what ended up recovering, and filled Madrid exhibition.
The winners walk the stands, filled with tinsel, looking for what they took. The famous actor of the era Enrique Chicote is immortalized by Yubero looming in 1939, a window of the Bank of Spain to see if he recognized something of their own, elegant women empameladas, even in 1944, walk under skylights Crystal Palace retreat in search of a reunion with his past stolen, the crowd crammed into the streets around the Bank of Spain, September 11, 1940, to welcome truckloads of bags of gold returned from France ...
Alfonso
snapshots go further, and left to history through his Republicans still photos proudly displaying wreaths, bundles of cash, jewelry and religious objects of value seized in a convent back in 1936 ...
What remains of it all, I found now in Finance, is an inventory of technical culture. If there are no battles or claims, the most valuable objects end up in museums and public buildings.
The news of the discovery baffles him: " Everyone thought that the property had not been returned to their owners, including cutlery, silverware, paintings .., had joined part of the heritage of the state and were now being used in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Presidency, embassies and other State institutions .
Beyond the famous gold Moscow was the treasure box, and within it the most brilliant of the same set sail for Mexico in the Vita, partly the reason for the split between Prieto and Negrin. "What had the Vita when he sailed, by order of the canary, February 28 French port of Le Havre U.S. flag?
Vita's Treasure is one of the most sordid episodes in the fall of the Republic. Some Republican leaders fled to the goods, jewelry and values \u200b\u200b"were more portable" and had obtained for the spoliation of the Reparations Fund, or the opening of private banks in banks and deposits Monte de Piedad. Today it is impossible to determine the amount and value of transported in the Vita, it would not be invented in France or on arrival in Mexico .
Amaro del Rosal, director of the Reparations Fund, details content 110 of the 120 bags, bundles or boxes shipped in order received by Indalecio Negrin and Prieto. There appears to all, works with jewelry and trinkets handed out by the Fund; valuable deposits of the Bank of Spain and other banks, religious objects of extraordinary value (including the mantle of 50,000 pearls of the Cathedral of Toledo), collections of coins of gold deposits of the Generalitat, bags of precious stones ...
Abdon historian Mateos
estimated at 40 million dollars of the time value of shipped to Mexico.
in the basement of the Treasury, in this new Spain, April 2011 and has appeared a treasure. Not the Vita, but ZAPATERILES secret that will do nothing to reveal. This topic does not like anything that has "Historical Memory."
Do we ask you to release Garzon to investigate all thefts from Republicans when they made off with jewels and gold covered their heads?
Tellagorri
With OLMEDO ILDEFONSO detailed information. NOTE FROM BLOG
On August 31, 1938 landed Commander Isaac Echave and several crew members claimed by the Minister of Finance to be presented in Barcelona. Later would move to France with Maria Manresa, the former commander of the ship, to take over the treasury of the Republic. They were instructed to drive to Mexico, aboard the yacht Vita. yacht's crew was made up of officers and sailors Basque and Cantabrian, under the command of Captain Joseph Ordorica of Lequeitio, and Mariano Manresa as a responsible steward of the operation. The treasure came to Veracruz in the Vita on 23 March 1939 and served to help the Republican leaders in exile after war.
treasury ministry has appeared
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