As a guide to know what they should get and where it was, they used the “Dictionary of Fine Arts” by Cean Bermudez. French had a good taste indeed, so their main target were the Murillo and Zurbaran paintings and Convents and Churches were the basically the victims of this robberies up to a grand total of 999 paintings. Luckily some monks managed to save part of their heritage by sending it to Cadiz, as the Capuchin Monks who sent the complete series of magnificent paintings by Murillo that decorated the Church of the Monastery and that we all can enjoy today en Seville´s Fine Arts Museum.
In 1812 the French made a selection of the best 300 paintings to be taken to Paris. Some of them will stay in Madrid. The restwill end in Marshal Soult´s home in Paris. When he died in his house he had about 150 paintings, all of them had been stolen from Seville. None of this works were never returned. In 1836 their heirs organized an auction to sell them. The Louvre Museum will buy the “ Inmaculate of Los Venerables” by Murillo making it the most expensive painting in history up to that time. In Franco´s time, The Louvre Museum sent back to Madrid this” Inmaculate “ in exchange for a Velázquez painting.
Fortunately the artistic heritage of Seville was so big that even today there are many masterpieces in the different Museums, Churches and Monasteries we can enjoy today.
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