In the basement of the National Library in Madrid two civil servants show us some of the canvases that won the National Painting Award between 1941 and 1969.

Pere Portabella ventures into the closets of Madrid’s National Library, ennobling the award-winning works with a regime-pleasing degree of pomp and circumstance. But is Portabella pulling our leg? Is this all really just a subversive gag at the expense of the rampant conservatism on display?