Torres Martín, Arcadio

Description

Arcadio Torres (†1998) was an antiquarian based in Palencia who achieved singular prominence in the 1950s, mainly as a result of his role in the sale and export of important artistic ensembles such as the panels by Juan de Flandes from the altarpiece of the church of San Lázaro in Palencia, or his collaboration in the negotiations that preceded the export of the apse of San Martín de Fuentidueña -in this case trying to pave the way before the town of Fuentidueña and the bishopric of Segovia, to reach the agreement that was finally signed between the Franco government and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1957-.

In addition to these operations, he commercialized and exported numerous works of art, mainly from the province of Palencia. He arrived in Palencia around 1919 as a postal official, and there he carried out his commercial work to a great extent, but also his intense activity as an outstanding member of the social and cultural elite of Palencia, as he held, among other positions, that of local Chief of Civil Protection for the defense of the Artistic Heritage of Palencia (Sancho Campo, 1999). He was also a member of the Tello Téllez de Meneses Cultural Institution. According to his correspondence in the 1950s with James J. Rorimer, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or with the Museo del Prado, where some of the panels by Juan de Flandes that he acquired from the primitive altarpiece of San Lázaro arrived, we know that Arcadio Torres was domiciled at Calle Valentín Calderón 5 in Palencia, but he also received communications in Madrid, in this case at the home of his sister-in-law, Josefina Fernández Lomana, Calle Gobernador, 6, Madrid. It should be noted, in this regard, that his brother, Victor Torres, was also engaged in the antiques trade, first in Valladolid and later in Madrid (Martínez Ruiz, 2021, pp. 143-162).

Bibliography

• MARTÍNEZ RUIZ, María José (2021): "Arcadio Torres Martín y sus negocios al servicio del tráfico de obras de arte desde España a Estados Unidos", nº 374, Archivo Español de Arte, pp. 143-162.
• MERINO DE CÁCERES, José Miguel y MARTÍNEZ RUIZ, María José (2023): De Fuentidueña a Manhattan. Patrimonio y diplomacia en España (1952-1961), Cátedra, Madrid, pp. 142,167-169, 269-275.
• SANCHO CAMPO, Ángel (1999): "Necrológica de Arcadio Torres Martín", nº 69, en Publicaciones de la Institución Tello Téllez de Meneses, pp. 608-609..