Figueres, 29 March 2004
The institution's report for financial year 2003 was presented today. Following the meeting of the Foundation's Board, a press release was held in the Loggias Room at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres under the charge of Lluís Peñuelas, the Foundation's General Secretary, Montse Aguer, Director of the Centre for Dalinian Studies and Dalí Year Curator, and Joan Manuel Sevillano, Managing Director of the Foundation. The document sets out the work carried out over the course of the last year, as well as containing two appendices with studies of visitor attendance and financial management. The report is issued in a print-run of 2,500 copies in two versions: Catalan-Spanish and English-French.
Visitors
The upward trend in visitors was maintained in spite of the unfavourable international situation in the first half-year. During 2003, 1,153,713 people visited the three museums. The report’s statistics show that over 70% of visitors were concentrated on the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. This museum received a total of 820,369 visitors in 2003, of whom 59% also visited the city of Figueres. The House-Museum in Port Lligat received 95,213 visitors and Púbol Castle 79,071. The Dalí Foundation website received over one million visits, with a total of eight million pages visited. This establishes it as one of the Foundation’s main information/publicity instruments.
The Educational Service of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation showed a 226% increase in activity over the previous year in terms of the number of schoolchildren visiting the Figueres and/or Púbol museums with a monitor, to reach a figure of 29,310 in 2003.
Publications
It is worth stressing the intense publishing activity of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, with publications issued directly by the institution itself or in collaboration with other institutions. This included the Complete Works of Salvador Dalí as one of the academic landmarks of the centennial. Audiovisual materials were also published during the year, with a DVD and two educational computer games aimed at adults and schoolchildren.
International projection
During 2003 various campaigns were undertaken in readiness for the international publicity for the Salvador Dalí centennial. The main initiative implemented by the Foundation over the last year was the signing of an agreement with Turespaña, Turisme de Catalunya and the Costa Brava Girona Tourist Board. This collaboration agreement showed itself in the organisation of various presentations of the Dalí Year 2004 events in different cities throughout the world.
Financial results 2003
The report also includes a section with the financial management report. Notable among the financial results was the surplus for financial year 2003, standing at 2,873,566.77 euros. The revenue generated by ticket sales and by services directly related with the museums was 6,677,247.61 euros, a figure equivalent to 69% of the Foundation’s total income over the financial year.
New acquisitions
The report sets a figure of 194,197,810.43 euros on the artistic and documentary assets currently managed by the Foundation. In this respect, the Foundation has made very considerable efforts in acquiring works, which allowed some sixty items to be added to the collection over the last twelve years. These new acquisitions came at an overall cost of around 26 million euros. During 2003, two Dalí oil paintings from the 1940s were added to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation collection: Original Sin (1941, oil/canvas, 50 x 65 cm) and Three Women Imitating the Movement of a Sailing Boat (1940, oil/canvas, 54 x 65 cm).
