On May 18^th, the International Museum Day will be held, and to celebrate it we will be offering an open-doors day.  And as this year it coincides with the Night of the Museums… we will be open until one o’clock in the morning!

Furthermore, like last year, all the museums that celebrate it will participate in the  multimedia programme “A piece of the story” in which we share with the online visitors a secret story or unknown detail about the centre or the objects of the collection.  And here we leave you with our little piece of history:

Spanish lyre table produced at the beginning of the 17th century in walnut wood and strengthened with wrought iron  braces. 78 x 160 x 95 cm. Donation by Miguel and Juan Utrillo, 25/10/1968

In 1968, the brothers Juan and Miguel Utrillo donated this table to the Museu Picasso, which had originally been in the café Quatre Gats, the meeting place of barcelonian intellectuals and bohemians during the years 1897 to 1903. Pablo Picasso made ??his first solo exhibition in this tavern, in 1901.

Quatre Gats, c. 1899. Photo: Mas | Drawing by Ricard Opisso: Adolf Mas, Isidre Nonell, Vidal i Ventosa, Manolo Hugué, Joaquim Mir, Santiago Rusiñol, Ramón Casas, Ricard Canals, Pablo Picasso and Pere Romeu

During a recent restoration, it was discovered that this table is much older than its use in the Quatre Gats suggested. It had been made in Spain in the early seventeenth century, in walnut wood with straps of wrought iron. The sides and the wheels are modern modifications, probably from the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries.

Bulding facade, 2005. Photo: Josep M. Llobet | Current location of the table

Currently this table is in the office area and is not on public view.

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