Top museum’s Chinese connection comes to light with fall of Gao Ping

When the art critic Rafael Sierra approached the Valencian Museum of Modern Art (IVAM) with a proposal for a Chinese exhibition, the museum accepted this idea from a man who collaborates regularly with its director, Consuelo Ciscar. The art center even bought 61 photographs in 2008, ahead of their exhibition, paying 440,280 euros for them to Gao Ping, who was recently arrested as the alleged head of a criminal ring thought to have laundered between 800 million and 1.2 billion euros in four years. Around 100 arrests have been made in connection with the Operation Emperor case, including businesspeople, civil servants, a civil guard and even a porn star.

Gao Ping, who enjoyed the image of a celebrity gallery owner who helped introduce Chinese art into Spain and Spanish art into China, sold the photographs to the IVAM following the legal advice of Alberto Sierra Villaécija, a lawyer who happens to be brother to Rafael Sierra (who curated the Chinese art show). Between 2007 and 2009 Alberto Sierra was also manager of Espacio Tao, a Madrid-based art company created by Gao Ping.

The art purchase and the organization of two exhibitions in Valencia and Beijing in collaboration with Gao Ping underscore the complex network of relationships, family connections and overlapping interests surrounding Consuelo Ciscar and the IVAM, whose overarching goal did not seem to be the search for artistic excellence.

I have no contact with Gao Ping save the occasional sale of some artworks”

“That’s right, I was part of Espacio Tao, but I left over some disagreements on the way the company was being run. I have no relationship with Gao Ping save for the occasional thing like advising him on the sale of some artworks,” says the lawyer Alberto Sierra.

His brother Rafael and Consuelo Ciscar co-curated a 2008 exhibition at IVAM, 55 días en Valencia (a play on the 1963 movie 55 Days at Peking) in collaboration with the Iberia Center Of Contemporary Art, presided by Gao Ping. Rafael Sierra is part of a small group of critics who work personally with Ciscar, and in his case the relationship goes beyond the mere selection of exhibitions.

This newspaper got in touch with Rafael Sierra before learning about his brother’s connection with the art sale. Asked whether he had introduced Gao Ping into the IVAM, he replied: “I proposed an exhibition of Chinese art. I received a lot of material and put together an exhibition.”

Ciscar said when she buys art, she doesn’t know if “the gallery owner is a trafficker”

Rafael Sierra said he could not provide an appraisal of the photographs purchased by IVAM despite being their curator. “First of all, I’m not on the purchases committee. I had nothing to do with the purchase,” he said. When this newspaper noted that several experts feel the photographs were overvalued, Sierra said he did not know whether this is correct or not.

The art critic did admit that he had met Gao Ping earlier, that he had “all the blessings of the Chinese government” and that they were introduced by “the Chinese ambassador and the cultural attaché.” Rafael Sierra also noted that a few years ago, nobody suspected that Gao Ping was involved in illegal activities, and that he had even been interviewed by EL PAÍS.

His brother Alberto Sierra also said he never noticed any irregularities during the period of time that he worked with Gao Ping, “a man who was apparently normal, with very good connections.”

Similarly, IVAM director Consuelo Ciscar stated that when she buys art at a gallery, she does not know whether “the gallery owner is a trafficker,” just as when she goes out to buy meat she does not know whether the butcher “kills people instead of animals.”

The longest-serving chief the IVAM has ever had said that the Chinese photography purchase was “perfectly proper” from an administrative standpoint and that Gao Ping also maintained a relationship with other museums and art centers such as the Matadero in Madrid. A spokesman at the latter cultural center said it never buys artworks because it is not a museum, and merely hosted a show called Beijing Time in 2010.

The Spanish curator of that exhibition, Menene Grasz, said she asked Gao’s foundation for three installations by the “interesting” artist Jin Shi. This artist was not part of the IVAM Chinese show 55 días in Valencia.

Rafael Sierra’s connection to Valencia dates back to the days when Consuelo Ciscar was the regional culture commissioner, before taking over the reins of IVAM in 2004. He curated a show at the Valencia Bienal and many other exhibitions at the Valencian modern art museum. He has also curated several solo shows by Rablaci, which is the artistic name of Rafael Blasco Ciscar, the son of Consuelo Ciscar and Rafael Blasco, who is himself a former regional commissioner and Popular Party politician who now faces charges of misappropriation of public funds that were destined for development aid.