The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

A portrait of the late founder of the Basque Nationalist Movement, Sabino Arena, being carried through the streets of Guernica. It was 40 years ago on the 26th of April 1937 that planes of Hitler's "Condor Legion" destroyed the sacred town of the Basques "Guernica" on the bay of Biscay near Bilbao. German Heinkels and Junker planes set the town ablaze with their incendiary bombs, but the following day Franco's propaganda machine spread the rumor that the town had been burnt by its inhabitants rather than deliver it to the enemy. For the first time the authorities have allowed a mass memorial reunion for the survivors of the bombing and machine gun firing squads. Its present 19,000 inhabitants have not forgotten their tragic history. School children of the Bilbao art school made a full scale reproduction of Picasso's "Guernica" mural and displayed it in front of the city hall. Guernica, Spain, 1977

1977

Leonard Freed

(American, 1929–2006)
America
vintage gelatin silver print
Image: 22.5 x 15 cm (8 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.); Paper: 24 x 18 cm (9 7/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2016.486
© Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos
Location: Not on view
  • {{cite web|title=A portrait of the late founder of the Basque Nationalist Movement, Sabino Arena, being carried through the streets of Guernica. It was 40 years ago on the 26th of April 1937 that planes of Hitler's "Condor Legion" destroyed the sacred town of the Basques "Guernica" on the bay of Biscay near Bilbao. German Heinkels and Junker planes set the town ablaze with their incendiary bombs, but the following day Franco's propaganda machine spread the rumor that the town had been burnt by its inhabitants rather than deliver it to the enemy. For the first time the authorities have allowed a mass memorial reunion for the survivors of the bombing and machine gun firing squads. Its present 19,000 inhabitants have not forgotten their tragic history. School children of the Bilbao art school made a full scale reproduction of Picasso's "Guernica" mural and displayed it in front of the city hall. Guernica, Spain, 1977|url=false|author=Leonard Freed|year=1977|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2016.486