"The Marquis of Lozoya, Juan de Contreras, tasked by Franco with finding a gift for Hitler, politely requested in his letter to Julio Munoz Aguilar, the dictator's assistant, a solution to an old matter, as he describes it. Almost a year ago, Ramon Serrano Suner [Franco's brother-in-law and minister] called me to tell me to urgently acquire a first-rate Goya, which should be placed at the disposal of His Excellency the Generalissimo, he writes."
"The choice fell on the magnificent Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz, and the agreed price was one million five hundred thousand pesetas, plus three copies of the same painting, which I commissioned from the painter Nunez Losada, an excellent copyist, at a price of 3,000 pesetas each, he continues. I received a check from my cousin Jose Navarro for the amount of 1,500,000 pesetas. Therefore, the three copies by the artist remain to be paid for, that is, 9,000 pesetas more."
On October 20, 1942, a letter sent to the Generalissimo's Civil Household demanded payment of 9,000 pesetas from Francisco Franco for three copies of Goya's Portrait of the Marchioness of Santa Cruz. Franco had purchased the painting to give to Adolf Hitler and commissioned reproductions from copyist Nunez Losada at 3,000 pesetas each. The Marquis of Lozoya, Juan de Contreras, wrote to Julio Munoz Aguilar explaining that Franco had paid 1,500,000 pesetas for the original and that a check for that amount had been received, leaving the 9,000 pesetas for the copies unpaid. The document was acquired in late 2025 at Madrid's El Rastro flea market by Jose de la Mano.
Read at english.elpais.com
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