On 31 March 2026, Cèlia Querol delivered a seminar on the Casacuberta Marsans Collection and its exhibition space, Hospital de St Saver, located in Barcelona.
Organised by ARTES UK in collaboration with the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art at Durham University, the event provided an opportunity to present the project to an international audience of scholars specialising in Hispanic art.
The lecture offered an overview of the collection, its origins and current objectives, and examined recent acquisitions, restoration projects and research undertaken on existing works.
Since November 2024, the collection can be seen in its own dedicated exhibition space in Barcelona, the former Hospital de St Saver. This initiative was born out of a desire to share the collection with a wider audience, as well as recovering a historic building of notable heritage value. The former Hospital de St Saver was founded in 1412 to assist the city’s sick and destitute clerics and continued operations until 1925. Over time, the building underwent numerous renovations, including the construction of a Renaissance façade.
The second part of the lecture explored the history of the building, tracing the main stages of intervention and restoration. The seminar concluded with a presentation of the selection of works from the Casacuberta Marsans Collection currently displayed across the former church, sacristy, chapel and crypt of the hospital – spaces now repurposed as exhibition galleries.
About the Speaker
Cèlia Querol Torelló is the manager and curator of the Casacuberta Marsans Collection, a Barcelona-based private collection of Hispanic art spanning works from the 12th century to the present day. She holds a Master’s degree in Collection Studies and Museums from Leiden University. Her professional experience includes work at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where she co-curated Rembrandt–Velázquez: Dutch and Spanish Masters and was responsible for the online catalogue of the museum’s Spanish paintings. She has also held a position at Christie’s, London, where she produced valuations for cross-category collections in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. Her current work further includes managing the exhibition space of the Casacuberta Marsans Collection in Barcelona, which opened in November 2024 in the former Hospital de St Saver.