Hermitage Barcelona Project Founders Demand $141Mln Compensation From City Hall - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2022) Founders of the Hermitage Barcelona project are demanding that the government of the Spanish city pay 141 million Euros ($141.5 million) in compensation for damages for obstacles that prevented the opening of the museum, newspaper El Pais newspaper reported, citing documents at its disposal.

Of this amount, 5.5 million euros are needed as costs and expenses the company incurred while developing the project, and 135.5 million euros for loss of profit the initiative would have brought, if implemented, according to the Spanish newspaper.

In a claim submitted to the Barcelona City Council on June 21, the Hermitage Barcelona company said that preparations for the museum's creation dated back to 2013. According to the company, the implementation of the project has become impossible due to "the unjustified delay in resolving the issue by the city council" and the ultimate "refusal to formalize an agreement" with the Port Authority of Barcelona.

If the city hall refuses to pay compensation, founders of the project are likely to file a lawsuit, the news outlet reported. According to the Spanish newspaper, the resolution of the conflict may take at least four years.

In January, sources in the Hermitage Barcelona company confirmed to Sputnik that representatives of the project had abandoned the idea of opening a branch of the St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum in the Catalan capital due to the position of the mayor's office.

Negotiations on the Hermitage museum center in Barcelona have been going on since 2012. The construction was initially scheduled to begin in the port of Barcelona in 2016, while the museum was expected to be opened by 2019. In May 2021, the port leadership approved the construction, but the initiative was not supported by the city authorities, who challenged the port's decision in a Spanish court.

In October 2021, representatives of the Hermitage Barcelona project filed a lawsuit against the decision of the mayor's office, citing the exhaustion of administrative resources and ways to resolve the conflict through a consensus. At the same time, founders of the project told Sputnik that they were ready to stay in the city if the initiative was welcomed by the then or future local administration.