MADRID, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators in the Catalan city of Lleida over the removal of 44 works of sacred art that have been at the heart of a long dispute between the neighboring regions of Catalonia and Aragon, local media reported.
The Sijena artworks include medieval paintings, alabaster reliefs, and decorated wooden coffins and were sold to the Catalan regional government by the nuns of the Sijena convent in Aragon in the 1980s.
They underwent restoration work in the Catalan region, although the regional authority of Aragon has been carrying out a long-running legal battle trying to recover them, claiming the works of art were unlawfully sold. It won a court ruling in 2015, which was recently upheld.
Spanish Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo used the imposition of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which suspended the Catalan regional authority at the end of October, to authorize the works to be returned to Sijena on Monday. The art pieces were removed from the Museum of Lleida before dawn.
Around 500 people gathered outside the museum, chanting it was a "robbery," and there were some brief scuffles with the Catalan regional police (Mossos d'Esquadra) as a cordon was established to allow the art to be removed.
Lleida Mayor Angel Ros said Article 155 could not be applied to "sacred art," and insisted the legal battle "still had a long way to go."
The mayor vowed to use "all legal means" to prove that the works were bought "in accordance with the law and that the works were transferred to the Museum of Lleida with full legality and legitimacy."
Meanwhile, former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont tweeted from Belgium that the removal of the Siejna artworks was taking advantage of a "coup d'etat to plunder Catalonia with absolute impunity."
