The sculptures from a sixteenth-century altarpiece, three years of restoration and a long history of heritage advocacy. That is the story behind the pieces that have now returned to Olvés after passing through the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain. The town of Zaragoza has presented several sculptures from the main altarpiece of the Church of Santa María la Mayor, works by Gabriel Joly that were not stolen in the theft suffered by the complex in 1989, but that are part of that same heritage that the municipality seeks to recover, conserve and value.
The sculptures that have been restored and have already returned to Olvés are the Virgin and Child, the sculptural group belonging to Calvary, with the images of Christ, the Sorrowful Virgin and Saint John, and the set of sculptures of evangelists and apostles, with Saint Matthew, Saint Luke, Saint Mark, Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
On the other hand, the tondo showing the bust of God the Father blessing is now under restoration at the IPCE; a second group of goods made up of the two reliefs that were not stolen at the time in the theft suffered by the altarpiece (Nativity and Dormition of Mary) and three more reliefs that were stolen. recovered and that by court sentence were returned to the Diocese of Tarazona (Annunciation, Epiphany and Resurrection).
El Director General of Culture and Cultural Heritage, Pedro Olloqui, has indicated that «Olves is a symbol of the struggle of the Aragonese people for the recovery of their plundered heritage» and for the rehabilitation of the figures of his altarpiece, some of them works by Gabriel Joly, «the great introducer of the Renaissance in Aragon» and who also worked in other places such as the Monastery of Sijena, Another symbol of the struggle for the return of Aragonese heritage.
For her part, the mayor of Olvés, Iluminada Ustero, has assured that for the people of Olvés «it is a pride to receive these sculptures», after a restoration process that has lasted three years, and has also expressed her gratitude to the IPCE for the work it is developing to rehabilitate the heritage of the town together with the consistory.
For the delegate of Heritage of the Diocese of Tarazona, Jesús Vicente Bueno, these pieces have a great sentimental, historical and artistic value. «There are many neighbors who have not seen these pieces for a long time that we are now recovering,» he observed. Among the pieces that have already returned to Olvés, he mentioned a «very old» Christ, who does not wear the crown of thorns, and which is prior to 1560, or the Virgin and Child, with golden finishes.
ROBBERY IN 1989
The historian José Luis Cortes has recalled that the main altarpiece of the Church of Santa María la Mayor de Olvés was the object of a robbery that was perpetrated in the last days of January 1989, with the theft of four narrative scenes that flanked the titular image of the Virgin and Child on the first floor of the body. as well as one of the round sculptures housed in the compartments of the predella. The stolen reliefs were the Annunciation, the Epiphany, the Resurrection, Pentecost and the sculpture of St. John the Evangelist.
Some images that were preserved of the altarpiece were crucial to allow us to see how the complete set was before the theft and dismantling of the altarpiece in 1992, when the restoration works of the parish church were undertaken. When the altarpiece was dismantled, the masonry was kept in a warehouse located in the schools of the town and the sculptures that were not stolen are preserved in the chapel of the Virgin of the Miracle.
Those sculptures that remained in Olvés are the titular image of the Virgin with Child on her knees, the Calvary with the Crucified Christ, Saint John and the Virgin Mary, the reliefs of the Nativity and the Dormition of the Virgin, and five bulk sculptures showing Saint Matthew, Saint Luke, Saint Mark, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and a tondo with the image of God the Father blessing.
THREE RELIEFS
On October 22, 2020, in view of the interest of a family in putting three reliefs up for sale and in order to value them, an auction house in Barcelona asked the historian José Luis Cortés for his opinion on three polychrome scenes, in Renaissance style, whose author could be the sculptor Gabriel Joly.
The historian confirmed that these three Renaissance reliefs undoubtedly came from the titular altarpiece of the Church of Santa María la Mayor de Olvés, a fact that could also be verified thanks to the images that existed prior to the theft. The assets were during the judicial process that led to their recovery in judicial deposit in the Museum of Calatayud. In May 2025, the titular judge of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Calatayud declared that the Bishopric of Tarazona and the Parish of Santa María la Mayor de Olvés were the legitimate owners of the reliefs.
Once recovered, and given the general state of the sculptural ensembles of the altarpiece, the City Council of Olvés requested the help of the IPCE to restore the different reliefs that make up its altarpiece. In this way, this Monday it recovers the first three carvings that have been rehabilitated by the Institute of Cultural Heritage.
