At the municipal plenary session on November 23, 2018, the same day that the Barcelona City Council approved the posthumous awarding of the city’s Gold Medal to Montserrat Caballé, the then deputy mayor Gerardo Pisarello accepted the leader’s request of the socialist group, Jaume Collboni, so that both the Catalan soprano and the late Queen singer, Freddie Mercury, gave names to their respective spaces (street, square, gardens…) in the Catalan capital. Five years later, and with Collboni already occupying the mayor’s office, that commitment is closer to becoming a reality. The two performers of Barcelona, ??the song written by Mercury in 1987, turned into the unofficial anthem of the city that a few months before had been chosen as the host of the 1992 Olympic Games, will have a space dedicated to their memory in the new Plaza de las Glòries , which faces the final stretch of its redevelopment.
The Councilor for Sports, David Escudé, confirmed yesterday that the gazetteer’s presentation will study “the best location” possible for a road dedicated to the two artists. It is not an easy task: the list of people and events that Barcelona City Council wants to remember with a street or square is long. There are so many names deserving of such distinction that a collapse occurs that is difficult to resolve, especially if new developments are scarce, as usually happens.
Escudé pointed out that Caballé and Mercury will also have a sculpture, which will surely be installed at the point chosen for the new entry in the gazetteer. In this sense, the Plaza de las Glòries, where it is also planned to place a sculpture dedicated to Ildefons Cerdà, the inventor of Barcelona’s Eixample, will meet the best conditions once the works that have been carried out for years are completed.
The recovery of the proposal formulated by Jaume Colboni five years ago came to light yesterday when the auction of the manuscript of the song Barcelona and the intention of the City Council, expressed by the Councilor for Sports, to participate in it became known.
The document, written in English and Spanish, consists of two pages and the original is accompanied by 24 typed copies in English and 17 copies of an alternative version of the city. This manuscript is one of the thousands of objects by the British singer that Sotheby’s auctioned yesterday in London. The starting price was set at 20,000 euros. Finally, the City Council was unable to acquire lot 260, which among other objects included this endearing piece of paper.
The lot was awarded for just over 66,000 euros, a figure well above the maximum price of 30,000 euros that the City Council could pay. This price was set based on public appraisal reports that determined the value of these pieces based on their heritage and symbolic relevance. The City Council could present this maximum offer but not participate in the bidding.
