Guernica is a small town located in northern Spain.

It is here our story begins.

The Bombing of Guernica occurred on April 26th, 1937.

It was an indiscriminate attack on civilians residing outside of a war zone.

The actual number of casualties remains unknown.

At the time, Spain was in the midst of a civil war.

General Francisco Franco, who led a military revolt against the Republican government, colluded with Nazi Germany.

Believing Guernica to be a haven for anti-Franco factions, he requested they aerial-bomb the town.

Upon hearing the news of the attack, a Spanish-born painter residing in Paris picked up his brush.

The painter was Pablo Picasso.

Just 77 days after the bombing,

Picasso unveiled his work at the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic during the Paris International Exposition of 1937.

It was simply titled Guernica.

A grieving woman holds a child.

Another cries out in despair.

Guernica was painted not only for the civilians killed but for all Spanish people.

However...

since its first exhibition, it took 16,131 days for the painting to reach Spanish soil.

That's a total of 44 years.

In those intervening years, the painting faced a wealth of turbulent events.

At three hundred and forty-nine centimeters by seven hundred and seventy-seven centimeters,

and painted in monotone, the huge canvas depicts the atrocity and grief of war, as well as a hope for peace.

This is Guernica.

Picasso created the painting for his native Spain.

After Paris, it traveled from Northern Europe to Great Britain and finally to the United States.

Guernica was not exhibited in Spain for a long time.

The day that Guernica returned to Spain was marked as the "Milestone of Destiny."

The date was September 10th, 1981, 16,131 days since the painting was first shown to the world.

Why did it take so long?

There were three major "walls" it had to overcome.

Disputes erupted on where the painting should be kept in Spain.

It also survived a spray-paint attack.

Dramatic twists swayed Guernica's fate.

The first obstacle was "The Wall of Dictatorship."

Franco, who was deeply involved in the aerial bombing of Guernica, ruled Spain long after World War Two.

By having painted Guernica, Picasso was regarded as an enemy and an extremist group vandalized a gallery exhibiting his paintings.

But the gallery owner, Elvira González, was undeterred by the threats and continued to display Picasso's work.

What was behind this tremendous faith that Guernica conjured within her?

Guernica is regarded as a work of transcendental art.

Exploring the minds of those who fought to bring the painting home, we discover Another Story.

Madrid, the capital of Spain.

The past 55 years, putting her life at risk during the Franco years, this woman has been running an art gallery.

Her name is Elvira González.

Some may dedicate their life to God and saints, but I've dedicated mine to Picasso.

That's why I continued to exhibit his paintings and waited for his greatest masterpiece, Guernica, to come to Spain.

Even the terrorist attack didn't phase me.

Picasso left Spain in his 20s to pursue his craft in Paris, the art capital of the world.

At 55, when the world was on the brink of World War Two, he painted Guernica, which furthered his international fame.

Yet, Picasso was never to make a return to Spain.

This was the fault of one man.

This man, Franco, plotted with Nazi Germany to suppress Spain's civil war resistance

before the outbreak of World War Two and established a dictatorship in Spain.

After the war, Franco deftly survived the tangle of international matters and continued to rule Spain.

In defiance of this, Picasso created Guernica for the Spanish Republic and its fight against Franco.

The painting was exhibited worldwide in support of the Franco resistance, but all hope was lost when the Spanish Republic fell in 1939.

Picasso elected to keep Guernica at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,

where it was on display at the time.

Later, when asked about Franco and the war, he replied,

"I haven't painted the war."

"I'm not that kind of painter, the kind who goes, like a photographer, in search of a subject."

"But there's no doubt about the war existing in the pictures I did at the time."

Picasso continued to be Franco's arch-enemy even after the war, with the majority of Picasso's work exhibited outside Spain.

I first saw Guernica in New York.

I wondered why I had to see a painting of a Spanish painter in another country.

But I was transfixed when I saw it.

The painting has the ability to elicit a profound emotional impact even before understanding it.

There isn't another painting that motivates you this strongly to face the senselessness of war and oppression.

I felt challenged by the image of the crying woman.

Why aren't we allowed to see the work of such a genius in his homeland?

So, in 1966, I decided to open the only gallery in Spain displaying Picasso.

I named it Galeria Theo.

Theo is Van Gogh's brother.

No matter how obscure his brother was,

Theo always believed in the genius of Van Gogh and continued to display his art.

I was the same.

I decided to continue displaying Picasso's work in Spain.

In 1971, five years after the opening of Galeria Theo,

González planned her long-cherished Picasso exhibition.

However, before she could do this, more social turmoil surrounding Guernica occurred.

It started with an unexpected declaration from the Franco regime.

"Franco favors the return of Picasso and Guernica."

"We only want to bring back this art treasure as a homage to Picasso"

"and as a symbol of the fact that there are no political objections here to its being shown."

Franco even suggested establishing a museum featuring Picasso's work.

For Franco, whose influence was weakening due to an economic slowdown,

a reconciliation with the artist would undoubtedly aid his return to power.

However, Picasso's reply was...

"Non-Franco Spain to get Guernica."

Following this, he signed an extended loan agreement with MoMA,

stating that Guernica will not be brought to Spain until "public liberties will be re-established in that country."

Franco was humiliated.

This led far-right Franco supporters to take violent action.

Bookstores and shops selling Picasso-related merchandise were attacked and had their windows smashed.

I took measures to protect my gallery from damage by placing guards at the reception.

Still, I never imagined I'd experience such a terrifying attack.

An incident occurred on the 10th day of the Picasso exhibition.

I was still at home preparing to head for the gallery.

Fifteen minutes before the gallery's opening at 5:00 P.M.,

a young man claiming to be a student studying architecture asked to be let in early to see the paintings.

Touched by his enthusiasm, the guard let him in.

But the man suddenly blocked the front door and helped his accomplices in through the back.

They went on to destroy the paintings with knives and poured sulfuric acid all over the place before fleeing the scene.

I received a call from the guard and rushed over.

I felt so ashamed.

Moreover, I apologized for being unable to protect the masterpieces.

González was devastated by the attack.

But the declaration left behind by the attackers gave her the will to continue.

"We demand severe punishment for Picasso, who is an unpatriotic Marxist and a homosexual."

How childish.

I immediately knew this was an attack by a stupid and immature bunch who knew nothing about Picasso.

Picasso a homosexual?

They had no idea how many female lovers he had.

He was the biggest womanizer in history and was always painting women.

The attackers were truly ignorant.

Reading that declaration made me strengthen my resolve.

In order to eliminate such ignorance, I will never stop exhibiting Picasso.

And I shall never let them defeat me.

González called reporters and had them take photographs of the scene.

Following this, she took the photos and other records of the attack to the French Embassy.

I chose the French embassy because I wanted Picasso, who lived in Paris, to know of the attack.

The then-current climate was not ready to bring Guernica to Spain.

I also wanted to urge Picasso to observe Spain's reaction that followed.

Will our country let this go or condemn it?

It was still the Franco-era, but many media outlets condemned the incident.

That made me certain.

Only Franco and his fringe mob hated Picasso.

Most of us Spaniards, we truly admire and love Picasso.

The photos González handed to the French Embassy were distributed across Europe.

Fearing an international backlash, the Spanish government arrested and charged the suspects.

After things calmed down, what was next for González…?

I continued to hold Picasso exhibitions on themes such as "Picasso and Women, Picasso and Friends," and so on.

We are Galeria Theo.

We "Theos" must continue to support the Genius.

Weren't you afraid of another attack?

No.

Did you experience other dangers?

Not once, even during the Franco days.

I'm sure the far-right thugs learned a lesson.

The more they attacked, the more Picasso's presence grew.

I held a firm belief.

That incident would be the last time Picasso's legacy was disgraced.

Picasso would never be disrespected in Spain again.

And I knew Guernica would one day be brought to Spain safely.

When will that day be?

I waited a long time.

For a long time, González had been waiting for Guernica to come to Spain.

Then, in 1974, unthinkable news came in from the United States.

Guernica was vandalized with spray paint at MoMA.

What? What extremist group did it?

How dare they do such a thing to our Guernica, I thought.

But when I look back at it now, that crazy action triggered the efforts to bring Guernica to Spain forward.

"Until public liberties will be re-established in that country."

By respecting the wishes of Picasso, Guernica would remain in the United States of America, the land of the free.

Some felt it should stay in America.

But the situation was stirred by another significant incident.

The second wall hindering the return of Guernica was America,

but cracks were produced in this wall by artist Tony Shafrazi.

With a can of spray paint and in broad daylight, Shafrazi vandalized Guernica as it stood displayed at MoMA in New York City.

This was clearly a criminal act.

But a piercing question loomed in the background as to whether the United States should be the caretaker of Guernica.

Guernica's fate was to change.

We'll look at the surprising truth behind this story.

The Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, in New York City.

Although high-security measures exist in the museum today, an unprecedented spray-paint attack occurred in 1974.

It was the year after Picasso passed away.

If it is allowed, how do you think Picasso would react to what he did?

What he would do.

He'd wake up.

He'd have a shock.

He'd been awakened...curious...rethinking.

Oh, suddenly an issue, my painting becomes alive again and some significance there.

Aspiring artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat were supported by Shafrazi, an artist and gallery owner himself.

Born into a wealthy family in pre-Iranian Revolution Iran, Shafrazi arrived as an art student in New York City in 1965.

When first seeing Guernica, he was astounded.

And since then, I'm still...I'm more...

To me, it's as important today as it was at that time, maybe more.

And what it did to the situation, to the horrors.

So it was symbolism, but broken apart.

So all the bodies, for example, are in pieces.

A head separated from the body.

How was...there's nobody here.

A lady screaming from nothing.

So broken, broken, broken, broken.

So it expresses the result of the war.

The consequence of war is the broken situation.

So you're seeing the effect and the impact and the tragedy and the expression and the horror.

It maybe is the most important painting of the 20th century, but this painting is in black and white and gray.

Very important.

Why?

Also, the size of it is like cinema.

So, in 1937, already Hollywood is getting very big.

And also they're beginning to do sound.

Wow. Wow.

Do you understand?

Beginning.

Only the beginning.

Before that, you can hear nothing.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

You ain't heard nothing yet.

Only a few text at the bottom.

So, this painting addresses both in a way.

That is why the idea of the scream "Ah, ah, ah" everywhere.

There is trying to scream out.

Okay.

It never finishes.

I went to see it again and many times.

I am always studying it even now.

Every part, every time my eyes are looking, seeing something, I'm always feeling it, sensing it.

So it's alive.

After graduating from art school, Shafrazi moved to New York City, where Guernica remained on display.

Following frequent visits to the painting, he began to feel troubled.

It's very important.

In other words, the painting has a voice.

In my case, it became apparent that nobody was listening to the voice.

It was continuing.

It continued on and on and on and on, because after that you had the Korean War, then you had the Vietnam War.

It impacted so 1970.

That's how.

In 1965, the United States became fully invested in the Vietnam War.

From that point on, the conflict turned into a quagmire with no end in sight.

America was very important and it served a certain function.

But towards the end, I would say the emphases, the impact to be in the place where they're most responsible power that can do things like that.

So the people who bombed were obviously Germans.

What I had noticed because the Vietnam War, etc., etc.

as I told you before, aside from many people from the public going to see a painting.

They're not really engaged with the painting.

Shafrazi was disturbed by the idea of the United States being in possession of Guernica.

Then, shocking news concerning the Vietnam War came to light on February 27th, 1974.

What was his name again? Lieutenant what?

William Calley who got a pardon.

- Kelly? Or Calley?
- William Calley.

- Calley?
- Yeah.

I don't want to know how you say it.

Anyway.

No, I never.

It was the main.

No, I was very played a very little part in it.

March 16th, 1968.

Lieutenant William Calley led his troop in a massacre of Vietnamese civilians in what became known as the Mỹ Lai massacre.

Out of 507 villagers, 504 were killed.

Even infants were slaughtered.

An investigation revealed that the U.S. soldiers had shouted "Kill them all," following orders given by Calley.

Calley was found guilty in court, but on February 27th, 1974...

then-president Richard Nixon, who was eager to continue the war, released Calley on bail.

I notice already that people are going back and forth in front of the painting every day.

It's as if, with a war going on, television showing all the bombing in Vietnam,

all this going on, not only one thing or another, all of this going on, the painting had moved back, moved back, was very quiet.

To give it a voice.

"Ah!" to speak, to wake it up.

So that is why the second part is very important is to make sure is the front page of the world - read all about it, read all about it!

You understand that?

So it happened whether people bought it or not, I have no idea.

And it all came as an idea or art.

So, on February 28th, the day after the outrageous release of Calley,

Shafrazi stood in front of Guernica as he often did.

The difference now was that he held a can of spray paint.

What was about to happen before it happened was not about doing it at night.

None of my (???)...nobody is there sleeping (???).

Not about sneaking in very quietly, doing it, and running away.

No, it was to do it. Ready. To take it.

Where?

To the front page of the world!

So, I did it knowingly. I did it.

I mean, somebody telephoned telling I was doing it.

I did it standing there with twenty people watching the painting and giving the can here to them.

Across the painting he sprayed the words, "Kill Lies All."

Parroting the soldier's words in Mỹ Lai of "Kill them all," he replaced "them" with "lies."

Lies. All lies!

Not because it's bad, not because it's - no!

It didn't mean that meaning of lies as being they're wrong.

"You're telling a lie." No.

It's about intentionally knowingly doing so.

It's criminal.

Hence, the connection between what happens in art;

connection between the art, in this case, showing devastation of people, broken, devastation,

and how it got there because of war of one kind or another.

It's very important.

The Guernica was not alive with everybody, not with the power people.

And that's why I make it alive again.

And how do you make it alive?

By boosting it with injection.

You understand?

I mean, so also how?

By putting in the front page of the world.

I'm hoping, this is what I was hoping.

I was hoping, by doing that, so that, of course, that it would wake up the person. Bah!

Guernica's attack with spray paint made headlines as the news spread across the globe.

But what of Shafarzi's motives? Did they come across?

At the Museo Picasso in Picasso's hometown of Málaga, we spoke to Jose Lebrero Stals,

its artistic director, about his reaction to the incident.

We all thought what on Earth has this idiot done and were appalled.

A newspaper won't run an article about a dog biting a man but will do so if it were the other way around.

This incident seemed similar to this dog analogy but in which someone attempted a publicity stunt.

Still, why drag Guernica and Picasso into it?

Shafrazi was arrested.

However, he was immediately released.

The principal reason for his release was that the spray paint was thoroughly removed within a day.

I couldn't grasp why an activist like Shafrazi, a man appalled at the barbarity of the Vietnam War, would try to destroy a painting.

But when I heard that the graffiti was easily removed, I had a realization.

His goal was not to "destroy" or to gain notoriety.

It was a calculated move.

Fortunately not alive to witness, etc.

Desecration, I don't know if it's a desecration really.

It didn't destroy the painting.

It wasn't meant to destroy the painting.

I knew there were many coats involved with it.

I had many, many years of experience of doing that work on many surfaces, a very knowledgeable way of making art.

And I knew major paintings were always covered in many varnishes, especially large ones,

when it has to travel to many places and 30, 40, 50 years old already, no doubt about it.

So I knew there was a protective coating there.

And of course, sooner or later people would actually remove it.

Sharfrazi's goal was simply to put Guernica back in the headlines.

The incident did indeed set big changes into play.

The spray-paint incident triggered a series of articles questioning the meaning of Guernica in modern society

and whether the painting should reside in the United States.

Handing the painting over to Spain was also seriously debated.

The fate of Guernica, frozen in time, had begun to thaw.

At the time, the Franco government was on its last legs.

Everyone was fed up with the dictatorship and wanted democracy.

I realized that when Spain is ready to welcome Guernica, that's when we will truly regain democracy.

That would be a clear message to the international community, and it became my goal.

Franco died in 1975, the year following the spray-paint incident.

With Franco's hold broken, Spain's path toward democratization accelerated.

The conditions Picasso laid out for Guernica's return to Spain were beginning to be fulfilled.

In 1981, King Juan Carlos visited the United States and formally requested the transfer of Guernica.

16,131 days following its first public viewing, Guernica arrived in Spain.

Looking back on it, everything clicked and was set in motion because of the vandalism.

In the end, even MoMA was to give financial assistance for the handover.

As an art lover, of course I strongly condemn defacing artwork of any kind.

But let's stop talking about it.

Because if we don't it'll only encourage Tony Shafrazi to get carried away again.

How did Tony Shafrazi see the handover of Guernica?

The role of Guernica, in a period like this, is to remind us,

is to remind us in a situation like that, how to carefully and accurately,

what is the role of the artist, and in that situation, is to express it the best way they can.

And of course is very good for the people in Spain to look at it.

I'm sorry, in America you cannot see it anymore.

So you have to go to Spain to see it, which I did and I will always do.

You can connect to the painting.

And I'm fascinated.

I go back again.

I have not finished with the painting.

I will go back until I die every other time. Yes.

Guernica finally made it to Spain.

But there was still one more wall yet to overcome.

The issue was where in Spain Guernica should be exhibited.

A handful of cities, including Picasso's hometown of Málaga and the town of Guernica, claimed the right to exhibit the painting.

In the face of yet more conflicts, it came down to one woman to determine where Guernica's haven would be.

Carmen Gimenez was the first director at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid,

the museum where Guernica is currently housed.

At last, Guernica has finally found a peaceful resting place.

This too reveals another story.

- Did you finish?
- Just a few more shots.

Carmen Gimenez.

She garnered great trust from Picasso's family and is an internationally respected authority on Picasso's work.

She rarely appears before the camera.

Tony Shafrazi persuaded me to do this.

Really?

He went on for five hours on the phone.

What?

He spent five hours on the phone trying to convince me to appear in this program.

He insisted that my appearance would complete it.

We started talking after lunch and it was already dark when we hung up.

Tony is always like that.

He can only accept how he wants things to be.

I can understand what he did to Guernica.

Only Guernica can send off a message of that sort.

That painting is one of a kind, and Picasso didn't paint anything like it again.

And I'm proud to be able to secure a peaceful home for this special piece of art.

Guernica was transported from New York to Madrid.

Due to its enormous size, the only facility able to display the painting was within an annex of the Prado Museum.

It was an arrangement that Gimenez found unacceptable.

I was working as a curator in Madrid and was excited to see Guernica.

But I was surprised to hear that it was going to be displayed at the annex of the Prado Museum,

which was almost like a storage facility.

Plus security police were everywhere guarding the exhibition.

Worse, those hats they wore reminded all of us of the Franco years.

And that clunky glass shield.

It must have been bulletproof, but it was thick and in the way of the painting.

So, I decided to secure a better home for Guernica.

That's why I took a job with the Ministry of Culture.

Gimenez joined the Ministry of Culture in 1983.

She was taken aback to learn of the condition of Guernica.

Its paint was almost peeling off.

Three other cities wished to look after the painting, but it was in no condition to be transported any great distance.

She had to find a suitable facility in close proximity to the annex to minimize the impact of transportation.

She set her eyes on...

This building.

Known today as the Reina Sofia Museum, where Guernica resides,

at the time, it was a building owned by the Ministry of Culture.

This building was designed by the great architect Francesco Sabatini.

Like the Prado, its 18th-century architecture is historical.

I knew the Ministry of Culture owned the building.

That's why I began working for them.

Still, I was surprised at how small the rooms were.

There wasn't enough space to display Guernica.

The building itself fit the bill, but it was too small...

What did Gimenez do next?

Walking around to the back of the building, she found her solution.

I saw that the back was adjacent to the building, which was owned by the Ministry of Education.

If we break down the walls and conjoin them, we can install Guernica there.

I was determined to persuade the Ministry of Education.

Gimenez contacted the authorities directly.

But it was not smooth sailing for the negotiations.

I wasn't getting anywhere.

So, for the sake of Spain's future, I decided to play a hunch.

What was Gimenez's ace in the hole?

It was to invite the Don of Europe's art world and the President of the Centre Pompidou in France, Dominique Bozo, to Madrid.

Bozo has always highly praised Gimenez's research on Picasso.

I knew the Minister of Culture would most certainly accompany Bozo's visit.

So the first thing I did was to take them to that "storage shed."

And Bozo said...

"This is terrible."

Then, we went to the building owned by the Ministry of Culture.

Bozo said...

"The building is nice, but the internal design is too small."

And now for the final move.

When we came out of the building, I intentionally passed by the building in the back.

Bozo is a sharp man and immediately understood my intention.

"Why not use the other building as well? We'd do that in France."

The Minister was surrounded by the press and was pressured to agree.

Mission accomplished.

The Reina Sofia Museum was founded, and Guernica was safely transferred from the Prado Museum annex in 1992.

Gimenez had already left the museum by then.

After finally having found a safe home for Guernica,

I went out searching and actively sought other works by Picasso.

I put on a Picasso exhibition in Houston and then an exhibition in New York of three-dimensional pieces.

I'm constantly on the move.

As an art lover, I couldn't be happier than to serve Picasso and his genius.

Come to Madrid and you can always see Guernica at The Reina Sofia Museum.

The painting will go nowhere else.

Guernica awaits visitors from around the world who love art, freedom, and peace.

There are many paintings in the world labeled masterpieces.

But few of them compare to Guernica.

It elicits deep emotions from people wanting to protect the painting's legacy.

Even today, we are faced with war and the suppression of freedom in various parts of the world.

However, Guernica still sends out a powerful message, one that transcends time.

On February 5th, 2003, Guernica gathered attention unexpectedly.

It happened at the United Nations Security Council.

At the time, the United States had just invaded Iraq.

On that day, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke, seeking support for the invasion from other world leaders.

An unfamiliar blue drape stood against the wall of the noisy conference floor.

The drape covered the tapestry of Guernica.

While the reason behind this has not been made clear,

the world press has reported that,

no matter what the reasoning may be, no country can justify any military attack while in the presence of Guernica.

As Picasso said:

"There's no doubt about the war existing in the pictures I did at the time."