Return of the Last Exile

"Bienvenido! trumpeted Diario 16, a Madrid daily, in joyous welcome. To the applause of hundreds who had gathered at Madrid's Barajas Airport, Iberian Airlines Flight No. 952 touched down safely at 8:30 one morning last week with its priceless cargo. Stepping from the plane, Spanish Culture Minister IƱigo Cavero emotionally proclaimed: "The last exile has returned home today."

The jubilant occasion was the repatriation of Guernica, Pablo Picasso's stark protest against the savagery of war, which had come to symbolize Spanish hopes for democracy. Picasso had been commissioned by the Republican government of Spain to paint the mural for the Spanish pavilion...

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