Treasures from British ship return to Malaga after more than 200 years

Spanish naval history is full of shipwrecks, raids and plundering. Still, Spanish galleons were not the only ones to suffer from corsairs and pirates. Sometimes the opposite happened. One of the most famous cases is that of the British privateer frigate, the Westmorland, which operated in the Mediterranean against French shipping with its 26 cannons lining each side, going flat out under full sail.

That is until it was captured in a wartime manoeuvre. It was on the Livorno-London route carrying a large sum of money, goods and a collection of Italian art acquired by a number of young aristocrats on their 'Grand Tour', including the brother of King George III. All this booty arrived at the port of Malaga, where the cargo was seized and auctioned off to many buyers.

Now those paintings, sculptures and engravings, loaded with classicism and history, are returning to the city, pretty close to the port that 'welcomed' them first time round. All these treasures will soon be at the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja, which is hosting the exhibition The Westmorland in Malaga, to be opened in the second half of September.

A large part of that haul of works of art ended up in the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Art in Madrid, which is organising the exhibition together with Malaga's Unicaja foundation.

"A few days after setting sail from Livorno, the Westmorland was captured by two French ships from the main fleet, called Cathon and Destine, and La Gaceta de Madrid newspaper records the entry of the French ships into Malaga port, escorting their prized prey," says José María Luzón Nogué, former director of the National Archaeological Museum and the Prado, who took his research into the artistic legacy of this British ship in the collections of the Madrid-based academy and used it in his acceptance speech at the institution itself.

The full story of the capture of the Westmorland will be on display at the exhibition at the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja, curated by Luzón, together with lecturer María del Carmen Alonso. Visitors will hear of how the captured ship arrived in Malaga shortly after the beginning of the year 1779, on 8 January to be exact. The Spanish authorities gave permission for it to enter port, as Spain was an ally of the French at the time, who in turn were supporting the colonists in the War of Independence against England in America.

It was against this backdrop of war that the ship was captured, its cargo manifest specifying that it carried "129 pounds of silk", "2 boxes of medicinal drugs", "32 Parmesan cheeses, each in a box", "2 thirds of sulphur", orange blossom water, bales of hemp, oil, "wine from the island of Madeira" and numerous goods that were unloaded and sold in the port itself. What went unnoticed at first was something in which the captured captain, Willis Machell, took great interest and which also appears in the record: "23 boxes of marble in the form of statues", "22 boxes of prints, portraits and books" and "35 pieces of marble in pieces", which is a curious way of recording archaeological remains.

The ship's captain was particularly concerned about a painting worth ten thousand pesos and some crates destined for the brother of the King of England, the Duke of Gloucester. These crates with pieces of stone, drawings and manuscripts of no apparent value were the result of the 'Grand Tour', something all the young English aristocrats did, travelling around Europe after their studies and taking back with them experiences and numerous artistic souvenirs from classical Italy. The French soon seized the canvas pointed out by the captain, Perseus and Andromeda, painted by Mengs for the patron and collector Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, which had been completed and exhibited in Rome in February 1778. Confiscated and sent to France, it was eventually sold to the highest bidder, who in this case was a woman of good taste: Catherine II of Russia. The highly prized work is now on display at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

The rest of the art was acquired by the Compañía de Lonjistas de Madrid (an association of merchants and traders), although news of this delightful booty reached the ears of Charles III, the 'enlightened' king of Spain, who commissioned his prime minister, the Count of Floridablanca, to take possession of what pieces were left and to send them to the San Fernando academy for conservation. To this end all the crates full of art were shipped from Malaga to Madrid, where the delicate collection was deposited not only in the cultural institution designated by the king, but some also went to the Prado Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, various palaces and buildings used by royalty.

In fact, the Patrimonio Nacional authority is one of the lenders of pieces for the exhibition, which will welcome two exquisite sculptures by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, Eros and Psyche (from the Royal Palace of Aranjuez) and Bacchus and Ariadne (Royal Palace of Madrid) which came from the holds of the British ship. In addition there is the painting View of Malaga from the midi, by Mariano Sánchez, which usually hangs on the walls of El Prado and reproduces a panoramic view of Malaga in the 18th century with the ships anchored in the bay. One clearly shows the French flag flying, the other the Spanish flag. Another of these ships moored in the port could well be the Westmorland which, after being captured, was placed in the service of the Spanish crown. The paradox is that history ended up repeating itself, albeit in reverse, as the frigate was re-captured by the British, minus its fabulous haul of art that ended up scattered around the world and now returns to Malaga.