MADRID.- The King of Spain today welcomed Philippe de Montebello, director of the Museo Nacional del Prado’s Course for 2009, at the Palacio de la Zarzuela, which aims to be one of the most important activities that the new study center will undertake this year.

King Juan Carlos greeted his guest in the hall of audiences before holding a private meeting in which the Director Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has explained the contents of the initiative.

The first course will be developed through a cycle of conferences and classes titled “The Museum: Today and Tomorrow” that will be held between March and October of this year, under the guidance of Montebello.

King Juan Carlos who, like those who held before him the Royal Crown, maintains a close relationship with the museum and is President of the Royal Trustees. The King donated 750,000 Euros to the Prado for the prize that was given to him by Mutua Madrileña in November of 2007.

Those funds were then given to the Institution’s Study Center, which is housed at the Cason del Buen Retiro. The course was created in 2008 and since then it was announced that de Montebello would direct it.

This course, sponsored by the King of Spain, will allow the Prado to get closer to relevant personalities from the history of art and the museum world.