BARCELONA.- Following the events of the last few days regarding the exhibition The Beast and the Sovereign, MACBA’s Board of Trustees, having called an Extraordinary Meeting, wishes to communicate:

1. MACBA’s Board of Trustees has been informed of the decision of the Director, Sr Bartomeu Marí, to terminate with immediate effect the organic responsibilities of the Chief Curator, Sr Valentín Roma, and the Head of Public Programmes, Sr Paul B. Preciado, due to an irrecoverable loss of trust in their work on the part of the Director. Both had been appointed to these positions on 13 January 2015.

2. MACBA’s Board of Trustees has been informed of the decision of Sr Bartomeu Marí, Director, and Sr Joan Abellà, Chief Executive Officer of the MACBA Consortium, to put their posts at the disposal of the Executive Committee.

3. MACBA’s Board of Trustees has decided to accept the resignation of the Director, postponing its effect until a new appointment has been made with the aim of guaranteeing during this period the ordinary functioning of the Museum and the normal development of the 2015 exhibition programme, which was to have been announced last week.

4. MACBA’s Board of Trustees will immediately initiate an international open competition with a committee of experts for the selection of the new director.

5. MACBA’s Board of Trustees has ratified the position of the Chief Executive Officer in order to guarantee the ordinary functioning of the Museum throughout the whole process.

6. MACBA’s Board of Trustees deeply regrets that a disagreement between professionals should have transcended the constructive dialogue that must always preside over the relationship between those responsible for a public institution, thus placing it at the centre of an undesired controversy.

7. MACBA’s Board of Trustees wishes to thank Sr Bartomeu Marí for the work done during his eleven years dedicated to the Museum, the last seven of which he served as Director.

8. MACBA’s Board of Trustees wishes to express once again, as it has done for the past twenty years, its respect for creative freedom and artistic decisions.

MACBA’s Board of Trustees has therefore decided to initiate a new era in the life of the Museum and assume its responsibility, as a public institution, for supporting contemporary art, offering a multiplicity of views and generating public debates on art and culture. A mission aimed at integrating increasingly wider audiences.