MADRID.- The king, Prince Felipe and his girlfriend, Letizia Ortiz, visited by surprise the International Fair of Contemporary Art (ARCO), that the Queen inaugurated the last February 11 at the Juan Carlos I park.  They were accompanied by the director of the Fair, Rosina Gomez Baeza. During the visit, the fiancée of Don Felipe indicated that he is very fine in the Spanish Royal Family.

The visit had a totally private character and single counted people knew that the King, the Principe and his fiancée will be in the fair. The real retinue receive in all the route the applause and the affection of their people that have congregated in the pavilion I number 9 of the fairground Juan Carlos I.

A journalist asked, to the fiancé of the prince, also profession journalist, where does she feel fine? , like informer or like to be a member of a real family, and Letizia answered: here I am very fine, without extending in more details.

The real retinue continued visiting others galleries of art of pavilion 9 and about five o clock in the afternoon, abandonment the fairground, dismissed by the director of the fair.

Miro’s litographies were robbed with a value of 14,000 euros.

Two lithographs of the Spanish Artist Joan Miró were robbed yesterday in the Arco fair, in Madrid. The works were in Pavilion 7 of the fair, in the German Gallery Orangerie Reinz and its economic value is of about 7,000 euros each one. These 2 robbed lithographs are: ‘Ma de Proverbis’ and Osaka 1970, of 40x60 centimeters.

The people in charge of the gallery have informed that they interposed the corresponding denunciation after detecting on Thursday afternoon the disappearance of these works, although the police has still not been able to locate them.

The director of the Queen Sofia Museum, Juan Manuel Bonet, declared to Europe Press with respect to the robbery that "this happens even in the best families", emphasizing that in "as popular events as the ARC fair passes these things". This it is not the first robbery that takes place in ARC. The last year disappeared a Pablo Picasso’s ceramic, dated in 1952 and titled ’ Quatre visages’ and valued in 11,500 euros.

The Art Centre Queen Sofia invests 600.000 euros in purchases in ARCO.

The procurement board of the real patronage of the National Museum Center of Art Queen Sofia has acquired in the present edition of ARCO 2004 works of 19 artists by a value of more than 600.000 euros, according as informed the museum.

In the historical section, an original poster of Salvador Dali for the surrealistas conferences of Paris, 1935; a painting of the surreal artist Victor Brauner of 1930; a painting of Francisco Bores of 1927; one photograph of 1930 of Germaine Krull among others.

In the contemporaneous area a picture of the North American has been acquired by Peter Halley; a set of engravings and photographs  of Jose Manuel Ballester, Abraham Lacalle, Alberto Garcia Alix and Candida Hoffer and a Sergio Prego’s video.