Víctor Cageao (Baamonde, Lugo, 1970) will be the new director of the Royal Collections of National Heritage and, as such, of the Gallery. The selection of Cageao has been made after a competitive process with the advice of a commission of experts formed, among others, by the directors of institutions such as the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Art Center Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the National Museum of Sculpture of Valladolid or the Royal Academy of History.
Víctor Cageao, trained as an architect, belongs to the Faculty of State Museum Conservators. His career has been linked to management and planning in the museum field, with special dedication to museum architecture, museography and collection conservation. In fact, from the General Subdirectorate of State Museums of the Ministry of Culture, he has been responsible for the renovation projects of multiple museums such as the National Archaeological Museum, the National Museum of Underwater Archeology of Cartagena, the National Museum of Sculpture of Valladolid or the Malaga Museum.
Cagea replaces Letizia Ruiz Gómez, who left the position in September 2024. “My arrival almost four years ago at National Heritage was linked to the promotion of the opening of the Royal Collections Gallery, a museum project of enormous ambition and interest for the institution and for the country. “It has been a formidable challenge whose result has been very satisfactory,” Ruiz then declared to EL PAÍS.
Between 2015 and 2018, Cagea was general coordinator of Programming at the Prado Museum which included, among other areas, visitor service and architecture, for which he assumed the management of the international competition for the rehabilitation of the Salón de Reinos del Museo Good Retirement. From June 2022 to the present, he holds the position of general coordinator of Conservation in this same museum, and is responsible for permanent and temporary exhibitions and collection deposits and loans, as well as the library and archive.
For almost four years, between 2018 and 2022, he was in charge of the Real Estate and Natural Environment Directorate of the institution and, therefore, of the interventions and maintenance of the royal palaces and gardens. As director of the Royal Collections, Cageao also assumes the position of head of the Gallery, the museum that National Heritage inaugurated in the summer of 2023, with more than 600,000 visitors a year. Cageao will also be responsible for spaces such as the Royal Armory, the General Archive of the Palace or the Royal Libraries of the Palace of Madrid and the Monastery of El Escorial.