AP Features, October 8th, 2007
Spain's Prado museum is to offer free entry for two hours every day as part of changes coinciding with the inauguration of the gallery's long-awaited new annex, a spokeswoman said.
King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will formally unveil the new modernist extension designed by architect Rafael Moneo on Oct. 30 with the first show _ "Modern Masters: The Prado's 19th-Century Masters" opening the next day.
To help celebrate the event, entry to the Madrid museum will be free of charge between Oct. 31 and Nov. 4. After that, there will be no charge for people visiting the museum between 6-8 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and 5-8 p.m. on Sundays. The Prado is closed on Mondays.
Until now the museum has been free all day Sunday.
"The idea is to widen the free entry times and avoid the great amount of tension that built up on Sundays with so many visitors," Prado director Miguel Zugaza told Europa Press news agency.
The entry price to the museum at other times will remain at $8.50, which the museum said was one of the cheapest in Europe.
Other shows announced for this season include one beginning Nov. 20 of some 50 works by Velazquez, which is expected to include the National Gallery of London's "Venus at her Mirror."
In 2008, it plans a show on Goya in April and a major summer exhibit of Renaissance portraits.
The Moneo annex adds 183,000 square feet to the 312,000-square-foot museum, considered to have one of the world's richest stores of pre-20th-century masters, including Velazquez, Rubens, El Greco and Goya.
Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia museums also have recently completed extensions. The three museums are within 10 minutes' walk of each other, along the central Paseo del Prado boulevard.
