Esperanza Aguirre’s husband, Fernando Ramírez de Haro, was sentenced to pay 853,732.83 euros to a brother for a Goya painting that he sold in 2012 and which belonged to the family. Fernando Ramírez de Haro, according to the ruling to which EL PAÍS had access, sold the Goyawhich was part of the undivided inheritance of his father (who died in 2010), to the entrepreneur Juan Miguel Villar Mir for a total price of 5,800,000 euros (Sotheby’s, as intermediary of the private sale, retained 684,400 euros). The sentence, against which there is still an appeal, finds that the husband of the former president of the Community of Madrid never returned the brothers what they were entitled to for the sale of the painting and forces him to do so.
The painting, a portrait of Valentín Belvís de Moncada Pizarro, count of Bornos like Aguirre’s husband, had been in his home in central Madrid for years when, under pressure from creditors, Ramírez de Haro decided to put it up for sale through Sotheby’s. He agreed in writing with his brothers that he would give them his share when his financial situation improved.
Íñigo Ramírez de Haro, Fernando’s brother, was first reported through criminal proceedings. In his complaint, he accused his brother of deceiving him, concocting a false donation to facilitate the procedures. But the Court of Madrid, while admitting that the donation had been “invented”, closed the case in 2023, finding that the brothers “are exempt from criminal liability and subject only to civil liability”. Since it was an agreement between the brothers, the judges concluded that there was no crime. Then Íñigo Ramírez de Haro moved to civil proceedings, and the trial for the sentence took place last September.
“The commitment undertaken by the defendant towards the brothers is legally valid and effective,” reads the sentence, dated 14 November. «The absence of setting a deadline and methods of crediting the financial availability does not prevent the debt from becoming enforceable since a suitable time is considered to have elapsed which does not allow further extensions in compliance with what was agreed».
