Spain’s National Police recovered two 17th-century oil paintings in May that had gone missing in 1930, following their exhibition at the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville.
Both pieces were returned to the Archdiocese of Seville during a formal handover ceremony on May 20th. The ceremony took place in Seville’s church of the Hospital of the Venerable Priests.
The event was attended by the Secretary-General and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Seville, Isacio Siguero, Dean Francisco José Ortiz, the Cathedral Chapter’s Executive Administration and Heritage Delegate, Francisco Román, as well as members of the Historical Heritage Brigade of Spain’s National Police.
The paintings, titled Samson Taking the Honeycomb from the Lion’s Mouth and David Receiving the Loaves of the Presence from Achimelech, had originally been part of the decoration of the church’s center altarpiece.
Both were painted between 1698 and 1700, and appear in the church’s historical inventory as “two stories from the Old Testament and are the ones that are on the sides of the canopy of the main altar, the Archdiocese of Seville shared in a May 20 statement.
“Thanks to the fruitful efforts of the Archdiocese, the collaboration of the last owners of the works and the intervention of the Historical Heritage Brigade of the National Police, these two works by Lucas Valdés return today, almost one hundred years later, to the church of the Hospital of the Venerable Priests, where they can once again be contemplated by the faithful and visitors of Seville.”
The church housed the paintings until the renovation of the main altarpiece in July 1889, when they were moved for safekeeping to the sacristy. According to the archdiocese, the paintings were again seen around 1921-1922 by researcher Diego Angulo.
Several years later, in 1929, the two pieces were loaned for display at the Ibero-American Exposition in the city. When the exposition ended a year later, the pieces were never returned and have been lost since, believed to have become part of a private collection.
However, in September 2025, Spain’s Culture Ministry received a tip about two paintings that fit the description of the missing Valdés artworks, as listed in an auction house’s catalog.
An investigation was immediately launched to identify the pieces and determine whether they were indeed the missing pieces from Seville’s church.
After being identified as Valdés’ pieces, the two paintings were seized by police, who contacted the owners and advised them to return them to the Archdiocese of Seville.
