Finding Altamira Page #6

Let humility be your watchguard.

Emilio.

Mama.

Mesdames,

lam the Abb Breuil.

This is Monsieur Emile Cartailhac.

Dear Ladies.

Monsieur.

You are just as I always imagined.

We have waited too long.

Indeed.

I should have come long ago.

Seor Sautuola

will have heard of the cave paintings

discovered in the Dordogne

this last year.

There is no doubt of their antiquity,

since they were covered

by layers of earth

more than ten thousand years old.

And this is what brings you

to our door.

Twenty years after you ruined

my husband's good name.

I sincerely wish to make amends

for any injustice I did him.

May I apologize in person?

Papa.

He is here.

Cartailhac.

You cannot tell my husband,

Monsieur.

You can tell the world.

Please, Mero.

After you, gentlemen.

"After Altamira all is decadence.

We have invented nothing" - Pablo Picasso

Modern techniques date the paintings

up to 35,000 years ago,

even older

than Marcelino Sautuola imagined.

In the years

that followed the discovery,

my father and all our family

endured great sadness

as humiliation

and public rejection

followed the injustice

of accusations of forgery.

My father died in 1889.

Thirteen years later, in 1902,

after the discovery

of several caves in France,

Emile Cartailhac visited Altamira

and published his famous apology:

"Mea Culpa d'un Sceptique",

recognizing his errors, the honesty

of Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola

and the authenticity

and age of the paintings.

His honor was finally restored.

Dedicated to the memory of

D. Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola

and his great-grandson,

Emilio Botin-Sanz de Sautuola y Rios,

who shared his passion

for the arts and education,

his curious mind and deep intuition.

In loving memory of Jose Antonio Lasheras

for a life dedicated to Altamira.

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