The endless soap opera of the Muñoz Ramonet legacy

Like every unconditional fan of the western, I keep priceless scenes in my memory. One of them is a dialogue that takes place in the movie Two Rode Together, between the sheriff (James Stewart) and one of his deputies. It goes like this:

— Sheriff, Gómez's widow is going to have a baby.

— Give my congratulations to Gómez.

— But sheriff!, Gómez died more than a year ago.

— I always said Gómez was one of those guys who keep fighting after they're dead.

Well, apart from the comedic tone of the dialogue, it is very true that some people cause a lot of trouble after they're dead. This is the case, for example, of Julio Muñoz Ramonet, the great black marketeer of Barcelona during Franco's regime who, almost 30 years after his death, continues to be talked about because of his legacy, an endless lawsuit between the Barcelona City Council and his family that would make you laugh at some TV soap operas with much less sensationalist scripts.

The story of Muñoz Ramonet, a modest employee of El Barato department stores, begins during the Civil War, doing espionage work for the Francoist side. After the war, and thanks to his influence with the regime, he enriched himself with the black market, the estraperlo, and took advantage of the state's control through cotton quotas to acquire industries and businesses at a stolen chicken price. Thus, he ended up controlling an empire from his headquarters at Palau Robert that included the Can Batlló factory and El Siglo and El Águila department stores, as well as businesses related to insurance and trade.

In short, the black marketeer became a prominent figure in Barcelona, just as centuries before those who amassed their fortune through the slave trade did. But from the 1960s onwards, Muñoz Ramonet's world began to crumble. A chain of lawsuits and millionaire debts ended with his escape to Switzerland in 1986, where he spent the last years of his life. Before dying in 1991, he dictated his will, in which he bequeathed to the city of Barcelona his residence on Muntaner Street, 282-290, the old Palau del Marqués d'Alella, along with all the works of art inside.

Accumulating works of art was another of Muñoz Ramonet's activities, which began with the never fully clarified acquisition of the collection that businessman Ròmul Bosch i Catarineu had deposited in the MNAC during the time of the Republican Generalitat as collateral for a public loan. The problem began when the businessman's heirs did not hand over the art collection to the city council, initiating one of the most intricate lawsuits of recent decades. Concealments, searches, and interventions have followed one another. One of the latest chapters took place last October, when the Civil Guard recovered 475 of the works. The absence of a reliable inventory complicates the recovery efforts of the legacy, but it is known that Bosch i Catarineu's initial collection consisted of about 2,500 pieces. According to sources, between 50 and 200 works from the legacy would still need to be recovered.

One of the latest chapters in the lawsuit with Muñoz Ramonet's heirs took place last October, when the Civil Guard recovered 475 of the works

Meanwhile, the open litigations will continue and Muñoz Ramonet, the black marketeer of post-war black and white Barcelona, will continue to cause trouble and be talked about like Gómez in the western.