Do not look for impartiality in this article, there is none. It is written with anger. One just waits for that day when Menorca has nothing left to sell other than her grandmothers, but they dress them in the typical costume, an ensaimada on their head and holding aloft a sobrasada like the Jedi from Star Wars.
Almost everything on the island is for sale. At prohibitive prices. The French have taken a liking to it. Each square meter of plot costs an arm and a leg. The drag effect on prices is making life more expensive. Ergo, life is worse. In the 80s everything started to change, and it has been non-stop since then.
The conversion of traditional llocs into initiatives linked to luxury agrotourism was a first step. The Menorcans were getting rid of their properties in pursuit of a tourism model (at that time not yet widespread) that eliminated their own industry. Those who had a second residence also sold it. The chicken’s eggs shone like gold, and there are few things more humane than selling for money.
The rest came rolling. The island appeared on the radar of international funds and investors. The fact is that Menorca stopped being less and less about Menorcans and more about other people, foreigners above all. Because what do you have left when you lose your heritage, be it real estate, natural or cultural. Nor did the great benefits of tourism remain on the island. The thing got out of hand.
The reader will wonder what all this has to do with the Talayotic town of Binissafullet. A lot. That Sotheby’s has put this prehistoric site on sale for 950,000 euros, with its talayot, the taula and the remains of the hypostyle hall – until now publicly accessible – reminds us precisely that everything is for sale, even an Asset of Cultural Interest, although Binissafullet does not have the luck of being protected as a World Heritage Site like other sites.
The collector must respect this monument according to the conditions of cultural property but we will see what happens. In any case, you will wear a piece of Menorca’s history as if it were a luxury Rolex, while the Menorcans see how another part of themselves, of their identity, disappears.