Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao

This guide to the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao begins in early 1937, as bombers circled the city and a shipment of paintings was quietly loaded onto a boat bound for France. It traces how Bilbao once had two rival museums, one built on local businessman Laureano Jado's donated collection, the other filled with newer names like Gauguin, and how the Spanish Civil War scattered both collections, one hidden in a warehouse, the other sent abroad. Officials argued over the paperwork for two more years before the exiled paintings finally sailed home in late 1939.