Former Guggenheim Bilbao Exec Sentenced to Prison

Some of you may remember that about a year ago the director of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Juan Ignacio Vidarte, admitted that the museum lost €4.2 million of public money when it purchased Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time (2005) using US dollars rather than euros to buy the work. An investigation and audit also uncovered the embezzlement of over €480,000 by former Guggenheim chief financial officer Roberto Cearsolo.

Cearsolo has admitted to stealing more than €486,000 ($775,000) from the Guggenheim Bilbao museum, and was recently sentenced by a Spanish court in Madrid to 32 months in prison.