# Los Caprichos are withdrawn from public sale in 1799 under Inquisition-adjacent pressure

Date: 1799

## The fact

In 1799 Los Caprichos were withdrawn from public sale after a brief advertisement.

It is one event.

## Context

Split 1799 making as speech.

[Francisco Goya](/people/francisco-goya)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

The 80-plate set was advertised in the Diario de Madrid (6 February 1799) then withdrawn within days/weeks; plates later passed to the king (1803) to shield them.
Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers date the row.

## Evidence and sources

Prado Caprichos history and Met Heilbrunn independently describe 1799 publication-and-withdrawal and later royal deposit.

Official or archival record: Museo Nacional del Prado (https://www.museodelprado.es/en; Museo Nacional del Prado).

## Significance

Withdrawal is not the 1799 etching labour.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1799 brief sale then withdrawal of Caprichos.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Francisco Goya.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date, signatory, or non-occurrence; a demonstrated forgery; or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of other causes.

They are not a public rating.

## People

- Francisco Goya: https://factrail.ai/people/francisco-goya

## Drivers

- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm
- https://www.museodelprado.es/en

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/goy-caprichos-withdraw