The controversial project of Barceló at Geneva’s UN headquarters.
The Diplomat. 12/06/2017
The website of Tiempo magazine publishes a confidential report of 2008, drawn up by the Onuart Foundation, in which it details the figures of the controversial project of architect Miquel Barceló for the UN headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland).
In 2013, the Court of Auditors revealed that the final cost of the work in the room of the Human Rights Committee amounted to 20 million euros, of which the Foreign Ministry had to assume 11.5 million, 56% of the project, when the initial amount considered was 30%. Fifteen entities –most of them private– participated in the financing of the works. Besides, Barceló received 8.8 million in fees.
The regulating organization confirmed that one of the 500,000 euros contributions of the Foreign Ministry to the project came from an item allocated to development assistance and criticized the Foreign Ministry for not having “any control” over the work despite of the fact that in the agreement signed with the UN, Spain accepted “taking responsibility for the project’s cost, whatever this was, in the part not covered by private collaborators and employers, and without a specific budgetary allocation for that”.
The report of Onuart addresses the processing of the third subsidy file of the Foreign Ministry valued at 2 million euros. At that moment, the updated cost had rocketed to 16.6 million. An aspect unknown until now is that the then Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, signed a confidential contract with Barceló establishing the distribution of the work’s “commercialisation” profits. Part of the profit would benefit the Onuart Foundation and the other part would benefit the artist, although the percentage that each part would win is not specified.
The main trustees of the leadership, with 500,000 euros provided by each of them, were Telefónica, Repsol, La Caixa, Caixa Catalunya, Caja España, Indra, Mutua Madrileña, la Fundación Agbar, Hotetur and Galería Art Gaspar. There were other collaborating entities that donated 150,000 euros (the Balearic Government) and 125,000 euros (Sacyr Vallehermoso, Caixa Balears Sa Nostra, CEIM, Iberdrola, Grupo Drac and Grupo Barceló). Furthermore, at that moment, the Foreign Ministry hoped that another 20 entities joined them and contributed 2.75 million additional euros.
The budget of 2008 includes disputable –one is called ‘various and contingencies’ valued at 271,084.34 euros– or onerous items: the inauguration event was budgeted at 200,000 euros, the communication of the event at 150,000 and the production of a 55-minute documentary at 130,000 euros, among other items.
