In recent days, the Basque Government has requested to bring the Guernica painting to Euskadi for exhibition at the Guggenheim museum. However, this request has been denied by the Spanish Government, which argues it would jeopardize the artwork's conservation. This situation is not new, as the PNV has repeatedly requested the temporary transfer of the painting to Euskadi in 1981, 1998, 2006, 2010, 2017, and 2026, consistently facing refusal from the Kingdom of Spain.

Conservation issues of the painting have frequently been cited to justify the refusal. Nevertheless, sculptor Jorge Oteiza, in an opinion piece published in El Correo Español in 1988, revealed unknown facts about Picasso's Guernica. Oteiza explained that the cartoonist Uzelay, then a counselor and director of Fine Arts for the Basque Government, made inappropriate comments to Picasso during a conversation in Paris in 1937. Picasso, observing Uzelay's attitude, sent a message to Lehendakari Agirre to formally request the painting in writing, believing it belonged to the Basques, but this request never reached Picasso.

Oteiza recalled that in 1962, on the 25th anniversary of the painting, Joseba Rezola, a former assistant to Agirre, called Basterretxea and him to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. They were publishing a small magazine called Gernika and were preparing a special issue for the anniversary. Oteiza suggested that the flower next to the broken sword in the painting, as a symbol of death and hope, could be used. However, Rezola responded that Guernica was not interesting. Oteiza stated that the PNV should acknowledge what happened and apologize to the Basque citizens, instead of continuing to request the painting temporarily.

Columnist Nikolas Xamardo, knowing the truth of the events, believes that Euskal Herria should demand the return of what belongs to it from the Spanish State. Furthermore, he emphasizes that Picasso's Guernica should remain in Gernika, the chartered town that symbolizes the freedom, democracy, and peace of the Basque People.