Picasso's Guernica (1937) was created during Picasso's Surrealist period and captures the horror of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
A Spanish judge has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the civil war and Franco dictatorship.
Spain's top investigating judge, Judge Baltasar Garzon, has also ordered several mass graves to be opened. One is believed to contain the remains of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was murdered by fascist forces at the start of the war in the 1930s.
In his 68-page ruling, Judge Garzon says that Francoists carried out "illegal permanent detentions" which he says falls within the definition of crimes against humanity. He refers to 114,000 people who disappeared during a 15-year period after the outbreak of war in 1936.
The civil war was triggered by the military uprising of General Francisco Franco, whose supporters are said to have systematically eliminated left-wing opponents, even after the war was won in 1939.
Judge Garzon's document names Gen Franco and 34 of his senior aides as the instigators of the alleged crimes. He even asks that their death certificates be produced, to prove that they can no longer face prosecution.
The judge has also asked Spain's interior ministry to provide names of senior members of the fascist Falange Party, which supported Franco, with a view to possible prosecutions.
An estimated 500,000 people died in the civil war.
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