International Museum Day 2011

International Museum Day 2011

-14th and 15th May 2011, Two Open-Door Days

Saturday 14th May, 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday 15th May, 10 am to 2 pm.

-15th May 2011, MUME free guided tour

At 12 noon there will be a free guided tour of the MUME permanent exhibition.

-18th May 2011. Presentation of the incorporation of a new item into the Museum collection: “Suitcase of an officer of the exiled People’s Republican Army”. 11 am at MUME.

During the presentation, there will be a ceremony in recognition of the Lieutenant of the People’s Republican Army Juan Sáez Tomás and the Sáez-Merodio family will be thanked for their donation.

Jordi Cabezas, President of the MUME Consortium, will preside over the event, which will be presented by Jordi Font, Director of MUME. Then the historian Juli Clavijo will give the lecture: “The integrity of an officer of the Republic”.

The event will be attended by Juan Sáez Tomás’ children and a representative of the Spanish army.

Lieutenant Juan Sáez Tomás was part of the Service Corps of the People’s Republican Army, specifically the Paymaster’s Office. During the retreat to France in 1939, he took with him a suitcase that contained the money for payment of the troops. For more than 70 years, this suitcase, with its money, was looked after by his family. Now, Juan Sáez Tomás’ descendants, living in Narbonne, have donated the suitcase and its contents to the Exile Memorial Museum as a symbol of a return to the country from which it should never have left.