Demolition due to sale: The international market in Spanish ceilings in the twentieth century

During the first decades of the twentieth century, numerous Spanish Ceilings from the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries were sold and exported to museums and private collections. The international discovery of the beauty of the Alhambra in Granada since the nineteenth century, the taste for Spanish architecture promoted by the Spanish Colonial Revival Style in the United States, or the appeal of some ceilings which were exported from Spain early—such as those from Torrijos palace (Toledo)—contributed to this intense international demand. Decorated Wooden Ceilings in Spain (Byne and Byne, Decorated wooden ceilings in Spain, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1920) by Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley Byne became a source of inspiration for architects, as well as a useful catalogue for antique dealers and collectors. Byne himself was one of the main dealers responsible for this commercial traffic, and W. R. Hearst emerged as the greatest collector of Spanish Ceilings. The sale of ceilings led to the ruin of important buildings.